The general public sentiment is predominantly one of deep concern, frustration, and fear regarding the global tree crisis and illegal logging, with a specific focus on the deforestation of the Amazon. Commenters express a strong desire for immediate, sustainable action to address these environmental issues and often criticize international policies and leadership, particularly in Brazil. While some local efforts in countries like Afghanistan and Africa are praised for tackling deforestation, there is widespread skepticism regarding the effectiveness of global policies. The overarching mood is of urgency mixed with despair, with many calling for worldwide responsibility and innovative solutions to prevent further ecological degradation.

Brazilian Government

International Environmental Organizations

Local Communities

It's only in the countryside(s) of China, no one is planting anything other than cigarette butts and trash in the major cities.  

s3trios

I lived in China for a year in first grade, and I remember doing this; the school just put us on some busses and took us out to some random place in the countryside (probably an hour or so from Beijing) and we each had to plant our own tree. It was actually pretty fun.

Mei_Hou_Wang

I live in Pennsylvania. Blows most peoples' minds that the dark green areas on this map are the only parts of the state that weren't clear cut at some point:  

http://www.apps.dcnr.state.pa.us/forestry/sfrmp/images/oldgrowth.gif    



[deleted]

Spoke to one guy from Shanghai who grew up in this era. No tree planting.

todayIact

in the past famines were a real threat and happened every few decades in Chinese history. The choice is clear: cut down trees to make farmland or have trees and starve.

slickyslickslick

"Hey, kids! We may have fucked up; you go and fix it. You're welcome!"

ecafsub

Am I the only one who came to the comments because I didn't know what "promulgated" meant?

cobrabb

Do you mean revegetated, rather than deforested?

Iameviltree

This is a drop in the bucket when you consider that China goes through 20 million trees annually for disposable chopsticks alone.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2013/03/14/chinas-disposable-chopstick-addiction-is-destroying-its-forests/

nehala

From what I have heard, it's all just a scam. Students pay to take a field trip to go plant trees and once they leave the owner of the property digs them up for the next group to plant.

Neocarbunkle

Can you just plant 100 and be over with it in a day or two?

Zyn-

I live in Beijing and it always strikes me how whenever you see a cluster of trees they are always planted in neat rows. They're all the the trees that were replanted over the years. 

I was confused. At first I thought the student had to be 11 plants old.

Why don't the people who cut down the trees plant new ones?  

pby1000

A classic case of "Let the new generation deal with it"

0Etcetera0

Videos in this thread: [Watch Playlist &amp;#9654;](http://subtletv.com/_r4l57ve?feature=playlist)

	VIDEO|COMMENT
	-|-
[Bernie Sing-Along](https://youtube.com/watch?v=KeMHEKHCFG0)|[20](https://reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/4l57ve/_/d3kwtkf?context=10#d3kwtkf) - I'd say one of the last boastful forested areas in central Texas was my home area here, Bastrop, Texas.  Unfortunately, and to the point of tears, I have seen my beautiful Lost Pines destroyed by three gigantic forest fires within the past 5 years al...
[Armless man and blind friend plant over 10,000 trees](https://youtube.com/watch?v=V88eOuVZrEY)|[13](https://reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/4l57ve/_/d3kmkut?context=10#d3kmkut) - It's stories like this that tell the tale of what happens with de-forestation.  They're doing it for the next generations.      
[Tree Planting 2014 ft. Burley Crew (HTFU)](https://youtube.com/watch?v=azO8z1pf-cE)|[5](https://reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/4l57ve/_/d3l33rt?context=10#d3l33rt) - Whenever global warming or pollution makes me depressed i have to go watch this video. maybe some of the chinese need to see it. I feel like having school kids plant 1 tree every year is just a symbolic thing but not an actual good way to reforest. 
[Ah fuck. I can't believe you've done this.](https://youtube.com/watch?v=_X6VoFBCE9k)|[4](https://reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/4l57ve/_/d3ktihl?context=10#d3ktihl) - Earth be like 
[The Man Who Planted Trees (1987) HQ- English](https://youtube.com/watch?v=KTvYh8ar3tc)|[2](https://reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/4l57ve/_/d3koj39?context=10#d3koj39) - The Man Who Planted Trees eventually built a forest. 
[Forest Man](https://youtube.com/watch?v=HkZDSqyE1do)|[1](https://reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/4l57ve/_/d3lbeo8?context=10#d3lbeo8) - You'd also like this.  
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Mentioned_Videos

So whats that? Like a quarter billion trees a year or some thing? Even if it's only 2% of that, that's 5 million trees a year. Props china, that sounds a good deal more aggressive than most countries. Add nature's tendency to expand on its own and you get some sweet goodies. 



macaroni

grantness

I currently live and teach in China. I haven't heard of any of my students planting a tree this year. It may be law, but laws aren't always upheld here in China. 

Ace-of-Spades88

The "plant two trees for every one you cut down" rule has been working beautifully for the American logging industry. In fact, because of this rule, the number of trees has been increasing in the US for 60 years. I wonder why China doesn't adopt something like that?

coleosis1414

When does China *not* do something to defile nature and wildlife?

You can't just plant trees and bring back a forest it's not how that works. A forest is dense and diverse plant and animal life that coexists together. Planting rows and rows of similar trees can't bring back the forest, it's just a big garden.

Danno1850

How does one defrost a wooded area?  Oh.  Silly brain.

omgForgotPassword

Promulgated. Auto check knows it. I'm happy. 

OccasionallyLazy

What do you have to do if you are over the age of 11 plants?

KaizenGamer

I do know that a lot of China has some bizarre forests where the trees grow in perfect rows... Nothing else grows there though. I always thought they were screens to hide some unfortunate thing on the other side, trash heap, road, slum, what have you.

ltethe

Do trees really need help seeding? They do that anyway, its their shtick.

Lived in China till i was 11, never heard of this

Shanghai1943

I think you need a lot more than trees to make a forest.

wegwirfst

I imagine you mean environmentally. Basically, depends on how it gets destroyed. Trees trap CO2 by growing and then release it (most) when dying. If you manage to remove and keep all trees without decomposing and then reforest everything, it should be a net positive for the planet. If you burn the whole thing and leave razed earth, obviously net negative.

This is, of course, the most simplistic approximation. Doesn't count the energy required to do anything, only counting the carbon cycle of trees in particular.

And obviously, it isn't taking into account the sociopolitical aspect of the forest: countries involved, resources below it, potential wars. change of soil, water flows, local climate changes, fauna, etc.

Summary: Of course it would be bad lol what else could you imagine.

El_Diegote

Yes. South America climate depends basically on the Amazon. Without it, a huge part of South America would have literally no rain and would be a desert (basically all center-south Brazil, paraguay, part of bolivia and argentina I believe).

There is what we call "flying rivers" from the Amazon. The humidity from the amazon goes all to central-south of South America. And the andes plays a big role on this as well. If wasn't for the Andes, the humidity wouldn't also go down. Well, if wasn't for the Andes Amazon wouldn't even exist.

This humidity from the amazon that creates rain for a major part of the year.

I'm not even talking here about CO², just a real direct climate effect of the Amazon in the continent.

&amp;#x200B;

&amp;#x200B;

https://preview.redd.it/7fpabxqjvq3c1.png?width=960&amp;format=png&amp;auto=webp&amp;s=ac010b91599aaa7dcc8329f15bee4161dca3dbb5

vitorgrs

Oh God: we'd cook. The Amazon's main job is to trap heat and humidity: no rainforest means less water available for human use and hotter temperatures. We'd cook like a turkey in the oven.

weaboo_vibe_check

it would be an environmental catastrophe of great scale. Not only the loss of biodiversity, the desertification and its effect on the entire region and all the cities, it would also cause a drought that would affect all the way down to the Rio de la Plata. It would also mean millions of tons of CO2 and other gases being released into the atmosphere, accelerating climate change and ocean acidification. This last factor would in turn cause coral bleaching and the extinction of many marine species with hard calcium shells

Something that wouldn't really affect too much and that people often misunderstand is the availability of oxygen to breathe. First because even if the planet stopped generating it right now we have enough for a thousand years at least, but also because the great portion of oxygen is made by algae in the oceans. But ocean acidification will change that.

saraseitor

What will happen in the rest of the world if the Amazon is gone, is a fraction of what will happen in South America. For start, rain. No forest, no rain in central south America, north of Argentina and south east of Brazil. No rain, no food. No food, well, Brazil is proud for feeding the world. At that point we would be starving. This region could become a desert like Australia and Namibia. Other important thing: the forest is absolutely huge with trees 90 meters high. That's a lot of Carvon. It could increase the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere at another level. The world would be hotter and the suffering over here would be worse. But wait, there is more. Do you know what hides in this forest? No one knows for sure. The destruction of the forest could free plagues and diseases we aren't ready yet. Pests that could eliminate crops world wide, diseases worse than COVID, what's the limit? Who knows! So I could say it would be bad for the world and worst for South America.

Primal_Pedro

Just look across the Atlantic to the beautiful beaches forests and lush grasslands of Northern Africa. (end sarc)
Currently dust and minerals are blown west and fertilize the Amazon. I think a desert Amazon would add similar dust but it would be blocked by the Andes and not escape South America. Water will still flow from the Andes into a more fertile Amazon basin. Grass and shrubs will take root then trees then a tropical forest will stand. Probably too late to stake the people who were responsible for the original destruction to be staked to those trees, infelizmente.

Superb-Government214

Have you heard of the flying rivers that originate on the Amazon?

Without them a huge part of the continent would get super dry.

lisavieta

All native species will become extinted, it would undoubtable represent the start of the 6th mass extintion, in regard to climate change... i honestly don't know what would hapend, climate is a realy caotic sistem where all factors work in conjuction. Economically wouldn't happend much, the amazon soil is really unfertile, so it would be mostly use for animal feedign, mostly cow, but that really would not make a real boom in population, nor economy

Finally despite being called "the lung of the world" most of the amazon oxigen is consumed within itself, so short term the rest of the world would not be afected appart for that impredictable weather pattern.

Long term effects... i'm sure it would affect a lot global warming, but i honestly don't know how

DG-MMII

Nothing would happen to the world at large if the amazon disappeared only the interior of South America would become a dry savannah, that would mean a really bad time for the people living there (indigenous communities, cattle ranchers, soybean farmers, etc.) but the rest of the world would be fine (they can get their soybeans from somewhere else). 

Besides the human tragedy the worst thing about the amazon being completely destroyed would be the loss of an incredibly biodiverse ecosystem.

KERD_ONE

Then South America would be targetable by the first world, I have the theory we are not attacked bc Amazon is the lung of the planet, but once it dies we are just more people that can be sabotaged/invaded/destroyed/robbed

I don't give a sh1t about amazon or whatever rainforest exists.  Recently i found out i don't give a f*ck about anything.

The same thing that would happen if people outside South America keep polluting as they do.

mauricio_agg

Always wondered if I would have to chain myself to a tree in protest. Now it seems we all do

HatelandFrogman

I sure look forward to taking hikes through the majestic Walmart parking lots...

quickblur

As a Canadian this breaks my heart two-fold. The obvious trade/tariff implications. And just last year I fell in love with your national &amp; state forest systems, I wanted to see them all! 

I am truly broken hearted for you all to lose these incredibly diverse natural wonders.

anticked_psychopomp

Good book

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Monkey_Wrench_Gang

WhereDidAllTheSnowGo

Thankfully no MAGA camps, fishes, hunts, kayaks, rock climbs, birdwatches, geocaches, cycles, canoes, photographs outdoors, or hikes so they won’t be affected by this.

hugoriffic

I grew up surrounded by old growth redwoods.  Back in the 70s they had a lot of tourism for those trees.  The Japanese especially were fascinated by them. Some of the old growth redwoods are 2000 years old. I think I’m gonna have to go the Julia Butterfly route.  That idea ties in nicely given the cost of housing.  

[Julia Butterfly Hill](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_Butterfly_Hill)

Pacifically_Waving

Our trees suck for furniture. There’s a reason we go to Canada for wood ya bafoon. Where the tree hippies at? Time to shine and prove your love and protect the forest

zangief137

Since your post did not include any good sources, I found this by the LA Times that explains it.


https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2025-04-05/trump-administration-rolls-back-forest-protections-in-bid-to-ramp-up-logging


Some things to note so people don't fall for the baity-ness of your title.


Biden also rolled back environmentally protections accounting for roughly 70,000 square miles.


This targets areas specifically prone to pest infestations and especially wildfires.


Educate yourselves before chaining yourself to a tree and going to jail.

One-Pressure1615

Everyone needs to start calling their local rep like crazy.

wHAtisLife59

Money money money money, that’s what he and the Q cult are all about

sunshineandrainbow62

All National forests are open for logging. That’s half the reason the Forest service exists. The USFS is notorious for not being able to move projects forward. I wouldn’t worry too much about the logging. A lot of our forests need (sustainable) logging badly.

Typical-Impact-7458

What are they going to do with all the lodgepole in the American west? It's honestly really over grown and could use responsible clear cutting. I just don't see why a company would want to harvest it. There is really little to no money to be made. And it's honest hard work that can easily make an experienced sawyer $40ish/hr at least. Lodgepole can be used to make firewood, pallets, pellets, fence posts, and toothpicks. This won't help the price of lumber, it won't make houses less expensive. It won't even "stick it to the libs" by destroying our beautiful hiking areas. Forests benefit from fires. It's just stupid.

JackYoMeme

its-audrey

We don’t have the timber infrastructure to make it happen.  I do forestry projects in Oregon and the timber companies left to destroy rainforests when we were too stupid to keep some of that industry sustained here.  Because we wanted NIMBY and transferred the dirty timber business to poor countries with higher biological diversity, in forests not adapted to major disturbance, where they haven’t had the strength to fight the industry at all.  Now we have mostly overstocked younger stands that have been in need of 50 small forest fires over the past 100 years and are gonna explode like tinder at the drop of a match.  Because we took a single species management approach that failed miserably because habitat and competition considerations for the Northern Spotted Owl were not accurate.  And now the USFWS is paying to shoot Barred Owls as a last ditch effort to salvage the declining Spotted Owl population.  

So no, it’s not gonna happen like Trump would hope, but let’s hope it will happen in places that needed greater WUI protection, defensible space, age class diversity, and prescribed fire for decades that never got it.

1_Total_Reject

And all for nothing, there's no replacing BC western red cedar for certain types of construction because of the unique properties of the wood - america won't stop importing Canadian lumber, you'll just pay a lot more for it...

And have a lot of trees in the states cut for essentially pulp.

I_Smell_Like_Trees

Open for logging ≠ free reign to clear cut whole tracts of land. There are ways to harvest timber without ruining the landscape and ultimately making forest land more manageable, less prone to fire, etc.

oh_three_dum_dum

For [more context](https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2025/04/05/trump-administration-orders-half-national-forests-open-logging/) on the plans.

throwaway-dysphoria

National forests are completely different from national parks. The main purpose of our national forests are to be land/lumber reserves. It's unclear if this order substantially increases the amount of land available to be logged. Additionally, just because Trump opens up the land doesn't mean loggers are going to start felling trees; a lot of the national forest land doesn't support trees that are suitable for modern lumber operations. 

entitledfanman

Aren’t all of the national forests open to forestry?  They’re run by the Department of Agriculture.

rexeditrex

Holy cow - 4 month in, stock market on a record low, all allies scared away, major layoffs across the board, cuts in healthcare, Social Security, housing and now he proceeds with destroying the nature!
As a European, I can only stand on the sideline, watch and wonder how it all went so wrong so fast! 

Good luck…

bro_nica

I’m reminded of an interesting book.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/99208.The_Monkey_Wrench_Gang

Rdr1051

The Wilderness Society posted about it a few days ago. [Link](https://www.wilderness.org/articles/press-release/usda-commits-logging-public-forests-regardless-environmental-damage?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0BMQABHiAZMlgwCOlTJ_1KKnvMfTFe0DJZPdwbXFghIIdyQf51Wo5XPJNSOU5z9YH3_aem_VDB_psJEHzIYUjcgys0Prg)

somenemophilist

zwwafuz

[Here is a link to a tracker for Project 2025 that was created.](https://www.project2025.observer/)

BuddBath420

😭😭😭 when I was a child reading things like "the lorax" and "Horton hears a who," I never dreamed that in 2025, we'd turn back time... 
From the civil rights to land protection laws, I 100% thought life would be generally better in my 30s since we have the technology. But the greed some humans have makes me sick.... 
"I see humans everywhere, but not an ounce of humanity" ..... 😰

s7ar_du5t

lushootseed

I’m raging. I feel like I’m at a constant scream on the inside. This is such bullshit. Leave our land alone!!!

Ambsdroid

National forests have always been mixed use for logging, etc...that's the point

mmaalex

Our continental forests do not have the best hard wood. You only get that in really long cold winters like Canada and Alaska.

Grimnirsdelts

He’s a prick . Possibly the ugliest prick I’ve seen . 

ImportantAd4686

Anyone who truly loves their country wouldn’t put it up for destruction like this. 

Stimpak_Addict

One day Mother Nature will take it all back

PuraVidaPagan

They will mine **our** country and sell it for private benefit. Cunts.

eyeballburger

phunphan

There goes the beauty and mystery of the ancient Appalachian Mountains

PattiesInMyCheeks

daschyforever

Redditor_of_Western

Enjoy-the-sauce

Time to chain m'sef to some trees.
      Middle Tennessee
      Who m'I gon call?

Opposite_Start2392

Pia_152224

r/50501 to protest. Remember to target your boycotts against Trump/R-affiliated companies. 

A simple broad US boycott only helps them with their goal of crushing the economy and buying it back cheap. 

5 calls (app) to reach out to your reps and express your opinions.

roguebandwidth

Trumpers are disgusting, selfish, and ignorant.

Perrier27

JohnnyBroccoli

CrissBliss

Promeeetheus

josephdoolin0

dialsgod

I’m sure Joe Rogan and the “protect our parks” crew will be taken aback by this.

-Cerberus

newowner2025

I have friends who work in those parks. As they were all laid off, and complaining endlessly about their jobs being taken away, I asked, what are you going to do when they come for the trees? Literally not one person had an answer, and I can assure you the majority of them smoke pot, and hardly any of them can list the many benefits of hemp for paper, fuel, clothing, **better, stronger buildings for tornados and floods**, etc, etc.


America is going to have to wake up. If America is unhappy, then finding alternative, working solutions to bring to the table, is much more beneficial than idle complaining.

Apophylita

TheSwedishEagle

This is different from the parks right? Sort of? I saw another post and people were saying we already log these forests (the right way letting stuff regrow). I’m very against this but we aren’t logging Yellowstone or the others yet right?

TurtleMcgurdle

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/03/immediate-expansion-of-american-timber-production/

yourdrunksherpa

His hunter and off grid woodsy people gonna be pissed

OhLordyJustNo

nora_the_explorur

TechandNoTech

Anyone got an arcGIS map of areas that are now affected?

Zen1

Didn’t people in the past spike trees for reasons like this?

23370aviator

One-third of tree species are at risk, threatening biodiversity and ecosystems, with illegal logging significantly contributing to this crisis.

Global Tree Crisis and Illegal Logging

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