46 Percent Of Earth Still Wilderness

Fellow citizens of earth,

We are not paving fast enough! We must redouble our efforts!
If this is not stopped soon we will all live in a garden and you know what
that is like! Nasty insects!

- THe Emperor of Pavement

-------
46 PERCENT OF EARTH IS STILL WILDERNESS, RESEARCHERS REPORT
By Paul Rogers
Mercury News
Wednesday, December 4, 2002

http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/news/politics/4662024.htm

Despite population growth, logging and other environmental threats, nearly
half the land on Earth remains wilderness -- undeveloped and nearly
unpopulated, according to a study released today. The study by 200
international scientists, the most comprehensive analysis ever done on
Earth's wild places and population trends, was seen by some experts as a
surprising cause for optimism. Biologists also viewed it as a warning, since
only 7 percent of the wilderness is protected.

"A lot of the planet is still in pretty decent shape," said Russell
Mittermeier, a Harvard primatologist and president of Conservation
International, an environmental group in Washington, D.C., that organized
the study.

"We should be happy about that, but we should do everything we can to
maintain it. A lot of areas, particularly tropical forests, are under the
gun."

Using databases, computer maps and satellite photos, the study found that 46
percent of the Earth's land can be classified as wilderness -- from the
forests of Russia, Canada and Alaska to the Congo, the Amazon, the Sahara
and New Guinea.

That area, totaling 68 million square kilometers -- more than seven times
the size of the United States -- is home to only 2.4 percent of world
population, or 144 million people.

Antarctica and the Arctic tundra make up roughly a third of that wilderness,
or 23 million square kilometers.

To qualify as wilderness, researchers required areas to have fewer than five
people per square kilometer, or 247 acres; at least 70 percent of their
original vegetation; and a size of least 10,000 square kilometers, about the
equivalent of Yellowstone National Park.

The research was done over two years by scientists from such institutions as
the World Bank; Cambridge and Harvard universities; Zimbabwe's Biodiversity
Foundation for Africa; and the National Amazon Research Institute in Brazil.
The results will be published in a 500-page book next year: "Wilderness:
Earth's Last Wild Places," by the University of Chicago Press.

The study was bankrolled in part by donations from Intel co-founder Gordon
Moore, of Woodside, a major donor to Conservation International.

The developed world should do more to safeguard wilderness, said Thomas
Lovejoy, president of the Heinz Center for Science, Economics and the
Environment in Washington, D.C.

"There is also an ethical and moral reason," Lovejoy said. "We are all --
every amoeba, every person, every rhinoceros -- the end point of 4 billion
years of evolution. You just don't snuff that out."

Others noted that civilization's footprint is worldwide.

"There's not a square centimeter on Earth that's not affected by humans and
what we produce, from chemicals in the atmosphere to global warming," said
Peter Raven, director of the Missouri Botanical Garden. "But this is
interesting. It makes the point that there are lots of little-affected
areas, more than most people might think."

To learn more:
http://www.conservation.org

>We are not paving fast enough! We must redouble our efforts!
>If this is not stopped soon we will all live in a garden and you
>know what that is like! Nasty insects!
...
>>Antarctica and the Arctic tundra make up roughly a third of that
>>wilderness, or 23 million square kilometers.

I wonder how much of the other 2/3s is desert?

>>"There is also an ethical and moral reason," Lovejoy said.
>>"We are all -- every amoeba, every person, every
>>rhinoceros -- the end point of 4 billion years of evolution.
>>You just don't snuff that out."

How do we know evolution's goal is not to cover the Earth with
humans?

-Carl

> I wonder how much of the other 2/3s is desert?

By looking at this...

http://makeashorterlink.com/?I20C12FA2

...and taking a wild guess, I'd say the only
wilderni that are not desert are:

Pacific Coastal Forests of Alaska and Canada
The Llanos
Amazonia
Megellanic Subpolar Rainforests
The Congo Forests
New Guinea

-Carl

How do we know that evolutions goal is not to commit environmental suicide.

Carl Lumma wrote:

> >We are not paving fast enough! We must redouble our efforts!
> >If this is not stopped soon we will all live in a garden and you
> >know what that is like! Nasty insects!
> ...
> >>Antarctica and the Arctic tundra make up roughly a third of that
> >>wilderness, or 23 million square kilometers.
>
> I wonder how much of the other 2/3s is desert?
>
> >>"There is also an ethical and moral reason," Lovejoy said.
> >>"We are all -- every amoeba, every person, every
> >>rhinoceros -- the end point of 4 billion years of evolution.
> >>You just don't snuff that out."
>
> How do we know evolution's goal is not to cover the Earth with
> humans?
>
> -Carl
>
> Meta Tuning meta-info:
>
> To unsubscribe, send an email to:
> metatuning-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
>
> Web page is http://groups.yahoo.com/groups/metatuning/
>
> To post to the list, send to
> metatuning@yahoogroups.com
>
> You don't have to be a member to post.
>
>
>
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/

-- -Kraig Grady
North American Embassy of Anaphoria Island
http://www.anaphoria.com
The Wandering Medicine Show
KXLU 88.9 FM 8-9PM PST

--- In metatuning@yahoogroups.com, Kraig Grady <kraiggrady@a...> wrote:
> How do we know that evolutions goal is not to commit environmental suicide.
<snip>

We don't, but let's not let Rush Limbaugh hear that idea, or tomorrow, and for the rest of our lives, we will hear ditto-heads spouting it to justify any crazy thing they want to do.

John Starrett