[renewiltord]

Exactly. Deforestation in the Amazon is dwarfed by the end of old forests in Europe. There's almost no fauna and flora in Europe: all destroyed in the name of industrialization and civilization. Recent small-scale reforestation is touted as healing, but one might as well lay a bandaid on an amputated arm.

[IMTDb]

Forest resources in the EU expanded significantly over the past 70 years. From 1950 to 2020, there has been an increase in forest area (+37%)

Source: https://efi.int/forestquestions/q15#:~:text=Forest%20resourc....

[latch]

The loss of forest resources in Europe over the last 10000 years, and in particular the last 5000 years (largely due to human activity) dwarfs any recent gains (1).

(1) https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-18646-7

[fuzztester]

But is it with monoculture?

Seen some HN comments about that recently.

[notjoemama]

Maybe, but…presentism? Europe could do what the US has done and declared so much land federally protected that growth is stifled and property rises to a level that prevents the young from buying it. Although that’s a different topic…

[acdha]

That’s a problem but it has nothing to do with protected park land. Much of it was driven by racism: white people started leaving cities following civil rights era losses and sprawling out into adjacent suburbs, which were often forced to be low-density to exclude poorer people. That locks in a hefty climate footprint with all of that driving and larger low-efficiency houses.

[TylerE]

The land that is federally protected is generally not exactly sites so as to make for prime housing. Most of it, by area, is in places like northern Alaska.

[jackvalentine]

I came across this post yesterday that describes the issue in the context of Australia well. https://aus.social/@morachbeag/110959467825393289

[jahewson]

Europe was deforested long before industrialization.

[KptMarchewa]

This might fit the UK or Netherlands, but not overall Europe.

[foota]

This article provides a fairly in depth coverage: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-18646-7

Tldr forest coverage peaked 8k years ago, stayed more or less there till Romans, went down some couple dozen percent, paused after the Romans, then was decimated (heh) in the medieval era and modern times before now starting to recover.

[KptMarchewa]

I'm not disputing that forest coverage dropped significantly; "There's almost no fauna and flora in Europe" is very untrue though.