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Here, in order, are the industrialized countries with the highest percentage of forested land:
Finland
Sweden
Japan
South Korea
Estonia
Latvia
Taiwan
Slovenia
Bosnia & Herzegovina
Canada
Russia
Austria
Montenegro
Croatia
Slovakia
Macedonia
Belarus
What is interesting about this list, is that ten of the top 17 were under communist rule through the second half of the 20th century. Furthermore, if North Korea were classified as an industrialized country (which it probably is), it would be first on this list. DPRK would rank fourth in the world, among nations situated on a continent (as opposed to insular), after Suriname, Gabon and Mozambique.
What might account for the prevalence of surviving forest in former Communist nations?
Communism has nothing to do with the amount of trees in a country. Countries that fell victim to the violent ideology of communism just happened to have large forest areas.
Communism has nothing to do with the amount of trees in a country. Countries that fell victim to the violent ideology of communism just happened to have large forest areas.
Exactly. I mean, it's easy for Canada and Russia to have such huge areas of forested land considering their size and the fact that they are northern countries with lots of unpopulated land. The same goes for Finland and Sweden.
It took exactly 5 minutes for a poster to use this topic as an opportunity to express the opinion that communism is a violent ideology.
Large areas of Canada and Russia lie above the tree line, with much less land that could possibly be forested.
Quite the opposite, immense areas of Canada and Russia lie within the circumpolar subarctic forests belt (taiga), and as Milky Way pointed out, being largely unpopulated regions (due to the harsh climate), it's easy for them to keep huge forested areas. Tundra occupies a much lesser area in terms of percentage.
Correlations between communism and forests are spurious.
Correlations between communism and forests are spurious.
Correlations are never spurious. Attributing them to a causation may be, hence my question..
During the second half of the 20th century, a great deal of the world's forest was cleared. A reasonable question could be whether highly contrasting economic development ideologies were a factor in the clearing. I presented a correlation, and asked if anyone had an opinion on causation.
I would want to know why OP thinks that the prevalence of surviving forest has anything to do with Communism.
Because it was not exploited by the Communists? Do you have any facts how was the forest wood used during and after the Communist era?
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