I have one tree on my property. It certainly does not make up for all of the wood products or oxygen that my family consumes annually. I figure that some of the uninhabited forested portions of the earth make up for my single oak. But how many trees are out there per person? Ecology professor, Nalini Nadkarni thinks she has the answer.After pouring over NASA satellite photos, Nadkarni was able to estimate the number of trees on the planet and it came to just over 400 billion. Divide that by the number of people who inhabit Earth (over six billiion) and Nadkarni came up with 61 trees per person.
Nadkarni was at first thrilled with the number as she was happy for a single tree to call her own, nevermind 61. However, after giving thought to the wood products used in her life, 61 didn't seem like such a high number. This is not a reason to despair however, Nadkarni reminds us that trees are not like oil -- a non-renewable resource. To make up for the number of disposable chopsticks you burn through or golf balls you lose, plant a tree or two every year.
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