An EU study reports that the losses experienced by the Global Economy due to the current banking crisis pale in comparison to the annual cost of deforestation.

We're not just talking "costs" in a hippy, hand-wavy, "yeah man" kind of way, either. We're talking in terms of cold hard cash.

The report estimates the annual cost of forest loss at between 2 and 5 trillion dollars. Calculations put recent Wall Street losses at about 1-1.5 trillion. Where the credit crisis is likely to be a one-off event, the loss of natural capital poses an ongoing drain on global finances.

Read the full story here.