"Humankind has dramatically transformed much of the Earth’s surface and its natural ecosystems. This process is not new—it has been ongoing for millennia—but it has accelerated sharply over the last two centuries, and especially in the last several decades. Today, the loss and degradation of natural history can be likened to a war of attrition. Many natural ecosystems are being progressively razed, bulldozed, and felled by axes or chainsaws, until only small scraps of their original extent survive. Forests have been hit especially hard: the global area of forests have been reduced by roughly half over the past three centuries. Twenty-five nations have lost virtually all of their forest cover, and another 29 more than nine-tenths of their forest ( 2005)."
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Academics from the United StatesBiologists from the United StatesAcademics from AustraliaBiologists from AustraliaEcologists
Original Language: English
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(344 pages; quote from p. 73; edited by Navjot S. Sodhi & )
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_F._Laurance
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William F. Laurance
(born 12 October , 1957) is an American-born, Australian ecologist and conservation biologist, specialising in tropical rainforests. He was elected in 2003 a Fellow of the , in 2015 a Fellow of the , and in 2025 a Fellow of the .
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