Sky Not Falling, Forest (Maybe) Not Vanishing

The trope about disappearing rain forests that you've been hearing so often it has become that most dangerous knowledge of all — common knowledge — may turn out to be wrong. And if the vanishing act does exist, no one really knows how to prove it, cautions Dr. Alan Grainger, an environmental scientist who has studied the issue:

The UN reports are produced by the Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in its regular global Forest Resources Assessments (FRAs). Assembled principally using data from national forest authorities, the FRAs are widely regarded as the most accurate estimates available, which is why they are used by many researchers in the areas of forestry, land-use change and sustainability. ... Dr Grainger looked at the four most recent FRAs, published in 1980, 1990, 2000 and 2005. Each of the individual reports showed a decline in tropical forest cover; but across the four reports, he found no trend was discernible.