Earth Geography							Conversions
		This sheet is a work in progress. In sizing up the potential of biomass, it helps to understand the limits.
									1.60935	km/mi
	Population	English		Metric		Percent	Item		2.59	km^2/mi^2
		7,918	mi	12,743	km		earth diameter		100	hectare/km^2
		49,240,279	mi^2	127,531,970	km^2		earth disk area		640	ac/mi^2
									0.40	hectare/acre
		196,961,118	mi^2	510,127,879	km^2		earth surface area
		137,872,783	mi^2	379,127,879	km^2	74%	earth water area
		59,088,335	mi^2	131,000,000	km^2	26%	earth land area
		24,233,455	mi^2	39,000,000	km^2	8%	earth forest area
						30%	earth forest area:land area
						?	earth cultivated area
		USA
		3,717,813	mi^2	9,629,091	km^2	100%	USA  surface area
		181,519		470,131		5%	USA  water area
		3,536,294		9,158,960		95%	USA  land area
				1,768,270		18%	USA  arable area
				3,010,000		31%	USA  forest area
				1,980,000		21%	USA  commercial forest area
							USA  cultivated land
				207,000		2%	USA  irrigated land (1993 est.)
		Land use: arable land: 19% permanent crops: 0% permanent pastures: 25% forests and woodland: 30% other: 26% (1993 est.)
		Arizona
		113,998		295,254	km^2
		California
	37,172,015					12%	USA  population
		158,302		410,000	km^2		California surface area
				19,270	km^2	4.7%	California water area
						4.5%	CA/USA
		See also
		World production of major crops in 2004
		Top agricultural products, by crop types
			(million metric tons) 2004 data
		Cereals	2,264
		Vegetables and melons	866
		Roots and Tubers	715
		Milk	619
		Fruit	503
		Meat	259
		Oilcrops	133
		Fish (2001 estimate)	130
		Eggs	63
		Pulses	60
		Vegetable Fiber	30
		Source:	UN Food & Agriculture Organisation (FAO)
		Top agricultural products, by individual crops
			(million metric tons) 2004 data
		Sugar Cane	1,324
		Maize	721
		Wheat	627
		Rice	605
		Potatoes	328
		Sugar Beet	249
		Soybean	204
		Oil palm Fruit	162
		Barley	154
		Tomato	120
		Source:	UN Food & Agriculture Organisation (FAO)
		Major agricultural products, United_States
								Major Crops in the U.S.A. - 1997
	value rank		million metric tons			$/tonne			(in US$ billions)
	1	Corn	257	256,904,992	$                             24	95		Corn	24
	3	Cow's milk, whole, fresh	78	78,155,000				Soybean	18
	5	Soybeans	66	65,795,300	$                             18	269		Wheat	9
	7	Wheat	64	63,589,820	$                                9	135		Alfalfa	8
	20	Sugar beets	28	27,764,390				Cotton	6
	12	Potatoes	21	20,821,930				Hay, other than alfalfa	5
	4	Chicken meat	15	15,006,000				Tobacco	3
	11	Tomatoes	12	12,275,000				Rice	2
	2	Cattle meat	12	11,736,300				Sorghum	1
	14	Oranges	10	10,473,450				Barley	1
	17	Sorghum	10	10,445,900				Source:	1997 USDA-NASS reports
	15	Rice, paddy	9	9,033,610	$                                2	188
	6	Pig meat	9	8,574,290
	13	Grapes	6	6,125,670
	19	Cottonseed	6	6,072,690
	9	Hen eggs	5	5,141,000
	18	Lettuce	4	4,490,000
	16	Apples	4	4,241,810
	8	Cotton lint	4	3,967,810	$                                6	1,537
	10	Turkey meat	3	2,584,200
		In 2004, of the 145 million employed workers in the US, 834,000 of them held jobs as agricultural workers.
		U.S. agriculture has a high yield relative to other countries. The yield was (in 2004):[2]
		* Corn for grain, average of 160.4 bushels harvested per acre (10.07 t/ha)
		* Soybean for beans, average of 42.5 bushels harvested per acre (2.86 t/ha)
		* Wheat, average of 43.2 bushels harvested per acre (2.91 t/ha, was 44.2 bu/ac or 2.97 t/ha in 2003)
		Other statistics, United States
		Electricity:
		* production: 3,892 TWh (2003)
		* consumption: 3,656 TWh (2003)
		* exports: 23.97 TWh (2003)
		* imports: 30.39 TWh (2003)
		Electricity - production by source:
		* fossil fuel: 71.4%
		* hydro: 5.6%
		* nuclear: 20.7%
		* other: 2.3% (2001)
		Oil:
		* production: 7.8 million barrel/day (2004 est.)
		* consumption: 19.65 million barrel/day (2001 est.)
		* exports: NA
		* imports: NA
		* net imports: 12.097 million barrel/day (2004 est.)
		* proved reserves: 22.45 billion barrel (1 January 2002)
		Natural gas:
		* production: 548.1 billion m³ (2001 est.)
		* consumption: 640.9 billion m³ (2001 est.)
		* exports: 11.16 billion m³ (2001 est.)
		* imports: 114.1 billion m³ (2001 est.)
		* proved reserves: 5.195 trillion m³ (1 January 2002)
		Ethanol Reshapes the Corn Market
		With a corn-to-ethanol conversion rate of 2.7 gallons per bushel (a rate that many state-of-the-art facilities are already surpassing), the U.S. ethanol sector will need 2.6 billion bushels per year by 2010—1.2 billion bushels more than it consumed in 2005.
		A comparison of the 2006 Baseline with the 2005 Baseline suggests that much of the increased use by ethanol producers will be diverted from potential exports
		Making sense out of apparently conflicting data
		Regional Data Exchange System
		USA			Calculate from graphs		Percent of total
		Total land area	9,158,960			km^2
			915,896,000			hectares
		Total land area	884,135,000		based on %s below right	hectares	97%	close enough
		Arable land	176,827,000		183,179,200	hectares	20%
		Permanent crops	2,050,000		2,050,000	hectares	0.22%
		Forest				hectares
		Pasture	234,000,000		238,132,960	hectares	26%
		Irrigated			119,066,480	hectares	13%
		Other incl forest			494,583,840	hectares	54%
						hectares
		Arizona	29,525,400			hectares	25%	of irrigated
									410,000
									41,000,000
	California	2002			Percent of total
		million acres
	Total land area	99.81	40,391,747	hectares	100%
	Total farmland	27.59	11,165,297		28%
	Cropland	10.99	4,447,503		11%
	Percent in pasture	12%	542,595		1%
	Percent irrigated	72%	3,215,545		8%
	Harvested Cropland	8.47	3,427,694		8%
	Woodland	1.19	481,577		1%
	Percent in pasture	57%	274,499		1%
	Pastureland	13.99	5,661,562		14%
	Land in house lots, ponds, roads,
	wasteland, etc.	1.42	574,655		1.4%
	Percent of total farmland				5%
					World deforestation rates and forest cover statistics, 2000-2005
					New deforestation figures show Nigeria has worst rate of forest loss
					Rhett A. Butler, mongabay.com
					November 17, 2005 [updated to correct FAO change in data]
					Nigeria has the world's highest deforestation rate, Brazil loses the largest area of forest annually, and Congo consumes more bushmeat than any other tropical country. These are among the findings from mongabay.com's analysis of new deforestation figures from the United Nations.
					Monday, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) released its 2005 Global Forest Resources Assessment, a regular report on the status world's forest resources. Overall, FAO concludes that net deforestation rates have fallen since the 1990-2000 period, but some 13 million hectares of the world’s forests are still lost each year, including 6 million hectares of primary forests. Primary forests -- forests with no visible signs of past or present human activities -- are considered the most biologically diverse ecosystems on the planet.
					The United States has the seventh largest annual loss of primary forests in the world, according to FAO. In the 2000-2005 period, the United States lost an average of 831 square miles (215,200 hectares, 2,152 square kilometers or 531,771 acres) of such lands which are sometimes termed "old-growth forests."
					Overall, when plantations are added to the picture, the US gained a net 614 square miles (159,000 hectares) of forest per year. The FAO report suggests America's primary forests are losing ground to modified natural, seminatural, and plantation forests. Earlier this year, the government revoked President Clinton's 2001 "Roadless Area Conservation Rule" that protected 58.5 million acres of undeveloped national forest, in effect opening more than 90,000 square miles of forests to road construction, logging and industrial development.
	2005. All countries	Total forest cover	Primary forest		% Primary	Highest average annual deforestation of primary forests, 2000-2005, by area.	deforestation rate of primary forests
	Russian Federation	808,790,000	255,470	255,470,000	31.59%	(532,200)		1.0%
	Brazil	477,698,000	415,890	415,890,000	87.06%	(3,466,000)		4.2%
	Canada	310,134,000	165,424	165,424,000	53.34%			0.0%
	United States of America	303,089,000	104,182	104,182,000	34.37%	(215,200)		1.0%
	China	197,290,000
	Australia	163,678,000
	Democratic Republic of the Congo	133,610,000
	Indonesia	88,495,000	48,702	48,702,000	55.03%	(1,447,800)	13%	15%
	Peru	68,742,000	61,065	61,065,000	88.83%	(224,600)
	India	67,701,000
	Sudan	67,546,000
	Mexico	64,238,000	32,850	32,850,000	51.14%	(395,000)
	Colombia	60,728,000	53,062	53,062,000	87.38%
	Angola	59,104,000
	Bolivia	58,740,000	29,360	29,360,000	49.98%	(135,200)
	Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of)	47,713,000
	Zambia	42,452,000
	United Republic of Tanzania	35,257,000
	Argentina	33,021,000
	Myanmar	32,222,000
	Papua New Guinea	29,437,000	25,211	25,211,000	85.64%	(250,200)
	Suriname		14,214	14,214,000
	Sudan		13,509	13,509,000		(117,807)
	Madagascar		10,347	10,347,000
	Guyana		9,314	9,314,000
	French Guiana		7,701	7,701,000
	Central African Republic	22,755,000
	Congo	22,471,000	7,464	7,464,000	33.22%
	Thailand		6,451	6,451,000
	Ecuador		4,794	4,794,000
	Gabon	21,775,000
	Cameroon	21,245,000
	Malaysia	20,890,000
	Nigeria					(82,000)	56%
	Viet Nam						55%
	Cambodia						29%
	Sri Lanka						15%
	Malawi						15%
	North Korea						9%
	Nepal						9%
	Panama						7%
	Guatemala						6%
	forest statistics
	World's forests cover 3.9 billion hectares (9.8 billion acres - or 29.6 percent of the land base)
	*  The entire land base of the United States is 2.263 billion acres (913.7 million hectares)
	* US forests cover 747 million acres (301 million hectares - or 33 percent of the land base)
	* Sixty-seven percent of the total area of US forests (495 million acres, or 198 million hectares) are commercial forests, used to produce timber for forest products
	*  World's entire land base covers 13.1 billion hectares (32.8 billion acres)
	* World's forests cover 3.9 billion hectares (9.8 billion acres - or 29.6 percent of the land base)
	Between 1980 and 1990 there was a net loss of 130 million hectares (325 million acres), or three percent of the world's total forest land. Between 1990 and 2000, the net loss of forest dropped to 90 million hectares (225 million acres), or 2.3 percent of the total area of forest.
	Global Forest Watch, Human Pressure on the Brazilian Amazon Forests