The Amazon rainforest.
Photographer: Mauro Pimentel/AFP/Getty Images
, Columnist
It’s Better to Mine the World’s Rainforests Than Farm Them
Minerals are a highly efficient use of space, and represent a tiny environmental footprint compared to agriculture.
As if the world’s rainforests didn’t have enough problems to contend with, even the transition to zero-carbon power is threatening to level them.
Industrial mining ate up 3,265 square kilometers (1,260 square miles) of tropical forest between 2002 and 2019, according to a recent study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Some 80% of that total happened in just four countries: Indonesia, Brazil, Ghana and Suriname.