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In 2005, trees outnumbered people 61 to 1. In 2015, it's 422 to 1. Here's what changed.

Trees are some of the most helpful organisms on earth.

One large tree can supply a day's worth of oxygen for four people. They also absorb carbon dioxide, provide homes for animals, and make the nitrogen cycle happen, not to mention the whole "food and goods for human consumption" thing. No doubt about it, trees are pretty good at what they do.


Trees also make for excellent organic chairs. Photo by iStock.

And a new study revealed there are even more trees on Earth than we thought. A whole lot more.

The researchers found that there are over 3 TRILLION trees on Earth. That works out to be around 422 trees per person. Congrats, you just got yourself a tiny forest.

This is a huge deal, considering the previous tree tally, conducted in 2005 by Evergreen State College in Washington, only used NASA satellite imagery and found just 400 billion trees, which averaged out to a scant 61 trees a person.

Just some of Earth's 3,000,000,000,000 trees. And yes, I had to think long and hard about just how many zeroes that number required. Photo by iStock.

To arrive at that number, an international team of scientists combined two common methods: satellites and manually counting tree trunks.

You read that right. One of the most accurate ways for scientists to count trees is to actually go trunk-by-trunk and count them.

In this 2011 photo, a team from the Regional Office for Woodlands and Forestry in Germany count and catalog a selected section of forest. Photo by Johannes Simon/Getty Images.

The team, led by Dr. Thomas Crowther, an ecologist at the Netherlands Institute of Ecology who conducted the research while working at Yale University, first gathered the results of on the ground tree counts from every continent except Antarctica.

The various counts covered about 430,000 hectares (1,062 acres) worldwide, which may not sound like much, but when combined with satellite imagery, it gave the team a better estimate about the density of the forests and allowed them to make a more accurate count of the total number of trees on the planet.

Why is the tree count so important? It all comes back to conservation.

"It's not like we've discovered a load of new trees; it's not like we've discovered a load of new carbon," Crowther told BBC's "Science in Action."

"We're simply describing the state of the global forest system in numbers that people can understand and that scientists can use, and that environmental practitioners or policymakers can understand and use."

And hopefully, they will.

Trees on the island of Borneo are clear-cut to build a palm oil plantation. Photo by Bay Ismoyo/AFP/Getty Images.

Between poor forest management practices, deforestation, and land-use policies, humans have had a majorly negative impact on tree populations around the globe.

Crowther's team estimates the number of trees has decreased 46% since the dawn of human civilization.

While a more accurate count is great news, we're also not out of the woods yet.

As much as we all love trees, paper still makes up the largest percentage of municipal solid waste.

On average, the world uses an estimated 27,000 trees each day in toilet paper alone. And we're not much better when it comes to paper towels. They make up an estimated 20 to 40% of waste from dorms and office buildings.

Left: Trees are clear-cut to make way for a pulp and paper plantation in Indonesia. Photo by Ulet Ifansasti/Getty Images. Right: Paper towels, anyone? Photo by Mike Mozart/Flickr.

Knowing and understanding the tree count is the first step to saving these rapidly diminishing resources and developing sustainable solutions.

But there are still plenty of things you can do to help Earth's tree population grow and thrive.

And you don't have to replant billions of trees to do your part.

Start by choosing paper made from recycled material or from sustainable forests. Say no to paper and plastic at the store and bring a reusable bag. Even reducing your font one size before printing is a small change that can have a big impact.

#TreeFriendlyRelationshipGoals. Photo by iStock.

Making smart choices about the products we use and our personal habits may help spare our forests.

Because we may have 3 trillion trees on Earth, but we need every last one.

You can hear from Crowther himself, as he shares his method and findings in this short video from Yale University's School of Forestry and Environmental Studies:

Planet

Easy (and free!) ways to save the ocean

The ocean is the heart of our planet. It needs our help to be healthy.

Ocean Wise

Volunteers at a local shoreline cleanup

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The ocean covers over 71% of the Earth’s surface and serves as our planet’s heart. Ocean currents circulate vital heat, moisture, and nutrients around the globe to influence and regulate our climate, similar to the human circulatory system. Cool, right?

Our ocean systems provide us with everything from fresh oxygen to fresh food. We need it to survive and thrive—and when the ocean struggles to function healthfully, the whole world is affected.

Pollution, overfishing, and climate change are the three biggest challenges preventing the ocean from doing its job, and it needs our help now more than ever. Humans created the problem; now humans are responsible for solving it.

#BeOceanWise is a global rallying cry to do what you can for the ocean, because we need the ocean and the ocean needs us. If you’re wondering how—or if—you can make a difference, the answer is a resounding YES. There are a myriad of ways you can help, even if you don’t live near a body of water. For example, you can focus on reducing the amount of plastic you purchase for yourself or your family.

Another easy way to help clean up our oceans is to be aware of what’s known as the “dirty dozen.” Every year, scientists release an updated list of the most-found litter scattered along shorelines. The biggest culprit? Single-use beverage and food items such as foam cups, straws, bottle caps, and cigarette butts. If you can’t cut single-use plastic out of your life completely, we understand. Just make sure to correctly recycle plastic when you are finished using it. A staggering 3 million tons of plastic ends up in our oceans annually. Imagine the difference we could make if everyone recycled!

The 2022 "Dirty Dozen" ListOcean Wise

If you live near a shoreline, help clean it up! Organize or join an effort to take action and make a positive impact in your community alongside your friends, family, or colleagues. You can also tag @oceanwise on social if you spot a beach that needs some love. The location will be added to Ocean Wise’s system so you can submit data on the litter found during future Shoreline Cleanups. This data helps Ocean Wise work with businesses and governments to stop plastic pollution at its source. In Canada, Ocean Wise data helped inform a federal ban on unnecessary single-use plastics. Small but important actions like these greatly help reduce the litter that ends up in our ocean.

Ocean Wise, a conservation organization on a mission to restore and protect our oceans, is focused on empowering and educating everyone from individuals to governments on how to protect our waters. They are making conservation happen through five big initiatives: monitoring and protecting whales, fighting climate change and restoring biodiversity, innovating for a plastic-free ocean, protecting and restoring fish stocks, and finally, educating and empowering youth. The non-profit believes that in order to rebuild a resilient and vibrant ocean within the next ten years, everyone needs to take action.

Become an Ocean Wise ally and share your knowledge with others. The more people who know how badly the ocean needs our help, the better! Now is a great time to commit to being a part of something bigger and get our oceans healthy again.

Pets

Family brings home the wrong dog from daycare until their cats saved the day

A quick trip to the vet confirmed the cats' and family's suspicions.

Family accidentally brings wrong dog home but their cats knew

It's not a secret that nearly all golden retrievers are identical. Honestly, magic has to be involved for owners to know which one belongs to them when more than one golden retriever is around. Seriously, how do they all seem have the same face? It's like someone fell asleep on the copy machine when they were being created.

Outside of collars, harnesses and bandanas, immediately identifying the dog that belongs to you has to be a secret skill because at first glance, their personalities are also super similar. That's why it's not surprising when one family dropped off their sweet golden pooch at daycare and to be groomed, they didn't notice the daycare sent out the wrong dog.

See, not even their human parents can tell them apart because when the swapped dog got home, nothing seemed odd to the owners at first. She was freshly groomed so any small differences were quickly brushed off. But this accidental doppelgänger wasn't fooling her feline siblings.

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"Body positivity is about saying that you are more than a body and your self-worth is not reliant on your beauty."



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After persevering through numerous medical conditions and surgeries in her own life, Elman realized a few years ago that body positivity wasn't just about size or weight. Things like scars, birthmarks, and anything else that makes us feel different of self-conscious have to be a part of the conversation, and she tries to make the movement accessible to everyone.

Sharing her own journey has been one of her most effective teaching tools.

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OK, sure, there are no assigned seats, but you've been sitting at the same desk since the first day and everyone knows it.

So why does the guy who sits next to you put his phone, his book, his charger, his lunch, and his laptop in the space that's rightfully yours? It's annoying.

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The 25-year-old money-saving 'bible' that millennials and Gen Zers absolutely need to read

This book has saved me thousands of dollars and changed my entire perspective on "frugality."

Photo by Josh Appel on Unsplash

"The Complete Tightwad Gazette" offers timeless money-saving advice.

Let me start by saying that young adults these days absolutely do have economics stacked against them. There's no question that stagnant wages, the unaffordability of housing, outrageous college costs, post-pandemic inflation and good ol' American corporate greed have all combined to create a tough financial reality for us all, but particularly for the millennials and Gen Zers who are starting off their adult lives feeling already underwater.

If you're in that boat, allow a Gen X auntie to give you some sage advice. Absolutely, rail against the man and shake your fist at the skyscrapers and vent on TikTok if it makes you feel better. But also, none of that is going to change super soon, so you've got to own what you actually have control over, and that's managing the money that you do have (however little it may be).

When my kids were little back in the early 2000s, my husband and I were living on one not-at-all-amazing income. I had been raised quite frugally, so I was comfortable penny-pinching as needed, but I was looking for more creative ways to stretch our dollars.

I had no idea how much one book would change my entire view of saving money—or how much money it would actually save me over the years.

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