While Russia cuts more and more timber for export to China. In return for the support in the war (drone components, etc) China asks for even more and more timber and fresh water from Baikal.
China has added forest the size of Texas since 1990
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Re: China has added forest the size of Texas since 1990
#12Does this mean that you can drive in the forest for an entire day and still be in the forest?
Probably, yes. This is possible in Sweden, if you go from South to North, you can travel for multiple days by car and if you avoid highways, you will not leave the forest at all.
Re: China has added forest the size of Texas since 1990
#13Much of Europe used to be forest. It just all got whacked in the few centuries prior to today. So you have Europeans making tiny recoveries to their rampant destruction of their environment celebrating that fact while preventing others from doing what they did. There is one path to this: first clear cut your forests so you can build your industry; then build your industry so you can be prosperous; then rebuild your f…
> There is one path to this: first clear cut your forests so you can build your industry; then build your industry so you can be prosperous; then rebuild your forests.
Sure if you need to bootstrap to the 18th century. It’s much faster and cheaper to skip a few hundred years ahead by importing equipment.
Re: China has added forest the size of Texas since 1990
#14While Russia cuts more and more timber for export to China. In return for the support in the war (drone components, etc) China asks for even more and more timber and fresh water from Baikal.
I don't think they're giving away the timber. It is a commercial exchange like any other.
Re: China has added forest the size of Texas since 1990
#15Does this mean that you can drive in the forest for an entire day and still be in the forest?
This is common in Brazil.
Re: China has added forest the size of Texas since 1990
#16It's really hard to understate how deforestation ravaged China - their forestry cover declined by almost half during The Great Leap Forward as the CCCP at the time pushed hard to exploit the land. As a result, there were severe and noticeable problems with flooding and desertification. So starting in the 70s they invested heavily in the "Three-North Shelter Forest Program" (aka the Great Green Wall). Although, probably more importantly, economic liberalization meant farming became more efficient and people could move towards cities and free up the land again.
I think more fascinating has been Russia's surge in forestry growth, also very notable in the report. Unlike China their forests have expanded almost completely accidentally. Communist-era collective farmlands have slowly been getting abandoned. Their frontier has been shrinking and the forests have crept in, tree growth being aided by longer growing period and thawing permafrost.
Re: China has added forest the size of Texas since 1990
#17While Russia cuts more and more timber for export to China. In return for the support in the war (drone components, etc) China asks for even more and more timber and fresh water from Baikal.
I don't think they're giving away the timber. It is a commercial exchange like any other.
Yes, it is a massive sale of natural resources with huge discounts in exchange for the war support.
Re: China has added forest the size of Texas since 1990
#18While Russia cuts more and more timber for export to China. In return for the support in the war (drone components, etc) China asks for even more and more timber and fresh water from Baikal.
This would happen war or not. Btw, they sell the same off-the-shelf drone components to Ukraine and anyone else willing to pay for them.
Re: China has added forest the size of Texas since 1990
#19My immediate thought, yeah isnt that because they don't really naturally have the kinds of softwoods forests good for making boards and paper? And until more recently they were taking recycled paper/fiber from america in empty shipping containers returning. The real news is that it's also slightly happening in other developed countries too, another rhetoric point towards Steven Pinker's concept that as nations get ri…
> Steven Pinker's concept that as nations get richer they become more environmentally conscious, cause they can afford to care about it.
I think in this case it's more of a correlating factor. The countries struggling with deforestation have very little state capacity to enforce property rights or any sort of environmental regulations. Whereas in the developed world it's much easier to stop illegal logging or homesteading.
Re: China has added forest the size of Texas since 1990
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't think they're giving away the timber. It is a commercial exchange like any other.
Yes, it is a massive sale of natural resources with huge discounts in exchange for the war support.
Source for the discounts? (reddit and x are not a sources btw)