The Amazon from space for Tree Day

In Italy alone there are 12 billion of them, around 200 for every inhabitant, from the monumental ones such as the Castagno dei Cento Cavalli in Sicily or the 3 Frati in Molise to the many less famous but fundamental to our health and that of the planet. Today is National Tree Day in Italy and to celebrate it, e-Geos - a company formed by Telespazio (80%) and the Italian Space Agency (20%) - has selected a view from the Italian Cosmo-SkyMed satellites of the planet's largest home of trees: the Amazon rainforest.

The first trees are believed to have appeared at least 385 million years ago, long before the first dinosaurs, and today there are at least 64,000 different species distributed almost everywhere. Satellite images have estimated that there are 12 billion trees in Italy, almost 200 for every inhabitant, occupying nearly 40% of the national surface.

An important growth compared to recent decades that must, however, cope with the dangers of climate change. An example of this is what happened between 28 and 29 October 2018, when a violent storm named Vaia, with wind peaks exceeding 200 km/h, knocked down more than 14 million trees in a few hours. An environmental disaster, the effects of which are still clearly visible in parts of the Alps, in particular in Veneto and Trentino. Globally, there are more than 3 trillion trees, but some particularly important areas, such as the Amazon rainforest, are in constant decline due to deforestation activities and increasingly violent and frequent fires, driven by rising temperatures.