I keep getting mixed messages about the percentage of rainforest left in the world

[Bellabob]

I posted about my biology paper--I think it was yesterday-- and now I need help again. Every website and book I consult has different numbers on rainforest percentage. Some say less than 2 percent, some say 3 percent, some say 6, and some even say 10 percent of the earth is covered in rainforest. I do not know which one to put in my paper. Maybe you could help me with this. It would be apreciated.

 

 

Thank you.

 

 

 

EDIT: Crap, I should have put this in the homework section.

Edited March 8, 2012 by Bellabob

[jeskill]

You could use the most recent estimate. Or, if they are all recent, you could simply say that estimates range from 2 - 10 percent, then cite all the papers that contain the estimates.

[CaptainPanic]

I posted about my biology paper--I think it was yesterday-- and now I need help again. Every website and book I consult has different numbers on rainforest percentage. Some say less than 2 percent, some say 3 percent, some say 6, and some even say 10 percent of the earth is covered in rainforest. I do not know which one to put in my paper. Maybe you could help me with this. It would be apreciated.

There is no clear definition to "what is a rainforest", so also there is no single number that says how much there is.

 

Secondly, it is very difficult to measure how big such a forest is. I know that sounds silly (it's a forest - quite hard to miss). Satellites can measure how big a forest is... but how can they distinguish between a palm oil plantation and a forest? The methods aren't perfect, and this increases the error.

 

There are probably more arguments why this number is so vague. Maybe there are people that deliberately falsify data. Maybe there's a speck of spacedust on a satellite.

 

Science is all about measuring - and then accepting that a measurement isn't perfect.

 

So, you should choose a number, mention the source for that... and if you can find out, also some assumptions (what did the researchers who found that number mean with "rainforest"? Is that only the pristine untouched rainforest? Or all area covered in trees in the tropics?)

 

Thank you.

You're welcome.

 

EDIT: Crap, I should have put this in the homework section.

Don't worry. We have friendly moderators who will happily move the post.

[imatfaal]

To expand on one of CaptPanic's points - you might like to mention how this is an area of science that has become highly politicised; this should not matter, but it is possible that some groups will push extreme results as mainstream in order to sway public opinion in their preferred direction. You do not have to "choose sides" in order to do this - you can be completely neutral and disinterested but still comment on the fact/possibility that ideology is guiding some "researchers" (I have put that in quotations because they stop really being a researcher when they lose their lack of bias)