Slash and burn tactics by illegal loggers, cattle ranchers and drug traffickers in [Guatemala](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guatemala “Wikipedia Guatemala page”) are repeating the mistakes of their ancestors and destroying enough trees to fill an area the size of [Dallas](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dallas “Wikipedia: Dallas covers 385 square miles.”) each year.

One theory for the relatively sudden Mayan collapse 1,200 years ago is that clear-cutting of trees led to widespread erosion and evaporation.

Studies of settlement remains show the deforestation coincided with a dramatic drop in the Mayan population around 950 AD.

[Read](http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12972648/from/RSS/) (MSNBC)