Deforestation Crisis: How Fast Are Tropical Rainforests Disappearing?

How many football fields per hour are being deforested in tropical rainforests?

One hectare is equal to 2.47 acres, and there are 1.32 acres in a football field. (Round to the nearest acre per hour.)

The number of football fields per hour that are being deforested is 1710 football fields.

To calculate the number of football fields being deforested per hour in tropical rainforests, we can first convert hectares to acres. Since 8 million hectares are being cleared every year, we need to determine the rate per hour.

Given that 1 hectare is equal to 2.47 acres, the total number of acres in 8 million hectares would be 8 million x 2.47 = 19.77 million acres.

Dividing this by the total number of hours in a year (365 days x 24 hours), we get 19.77 million acres ÷ 8760 hours ≈ 2256.8 acres cleared per hour.

Since there are 1.32 acres in a football field, approximately 2256.8 acres ÷ 1.32 acres/field ≈ 1710 football fields are being deforested per hour.