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Domain: wcs.org

Stories and comments across the archive that link to wcs.org.

Comments · 7

  1. Re:Care by Greedo · · Score: 2, Redundant · on Top SciTech Gifts 2002

    SciAm should also promote more ethical gifts, such as adopting endangered animals, areas of threatened land and donations to trusts promoting research in to disease cure and treatment.

    If you had actually RTFA, you would've seen links on the last page to Adopt a Whale and Sponsor a Big Cat.

    You sentiments may be well meaning, but get your facts straight first.

  2. Re:Statistics by Latent+IT · · Score: 2 · on Humans Use 83 Percent of Earth's Surface

    Nice revisionist history asshole. Slashdot originally linked directly to the map (you probably wouldn't know that as you were too busy rushing in to proclaim that it's all alarmists) with no definition on it what it was (you'll note that there are other posts saying "So what does this mean? What are these numbers?") with no definitions, hence my presumption.

    Dude, seriously. Click the fucking slashdot link you're talking about. Look RIGHT BELOW THE GODDAMN map you claim to be looking at. It says in plain fucking english:

    Analysis of the human footprint map indicates that 83% of the land's surface is influenced by one or more of the following factors: human population density greater than 1 person per square kilometer, within 15 km of a road or major river, occupied by urban or agricultural land uses, within 2 km of a settlement or a railway, and/or producing enough light to be visible regularly to a satellite at night. 98% of the areas where it is possible to grow rice, wheat or maize (according to FAO estimates) are similarly influenced. However human influence is not inevitably negative impact -- in fact conservation organizations, including the Wildlife Conservation Society, have shown remarkable solutions that allow people and wildlife to co-exist. Nature is often resilient if given half a chance. Human beings are in the position of offering or withholding that chance.

    Right from the same damn screen you say you're looking at. Literally, the line below the map. I'm darn curious to see how you try to weasel your way out of this one. I notice the more I prove you wrong, the more you resort to ad hominem attacks. Always a sign of real intelligence.

    You're an illiterate moron, who is intentionally ignorant. I've proved you wrong countless times, and your responses have degraded into a name calling contest. I'm done with you. Expect no more replies to your useless drivel.

  3. Its a NASA picture!...just squint your eyes a bit. by helix400 · · Score: 1 · on Humans Use 83 Percent of Earth's Surface
    Doesn't the zommed in map of North America look almost exactly like the NASA picture of the earth at night?

    I wouldn't be surpirsed if a major source for their map was taking the NASA image and changing the color palette.

  4. Lakes have people on them? by helix400 · · Score: 1 · on Humans Use 83 Percent of Earth's Surface
    What else is new?
    Humans breath air.
    Water is wet.
    Deserts are dry.

    According to this map, people live on lakes! Looking at where the huge Great Salt Lake should be in Utah, it says there's humans on vritually all of it. (Er, human footprints at least). It also looks like Lake Okeechobee in Flordia still has people living on it too (not as many as Miami, but its not a dark green).

    Environmentalist science...gotta love it

  5. RTFA by kels · · Score: 1 · on Humans Use 83 Percent of Earth's Surface
    Is there any further information? How did they arrive at a figure of 83% and four Earths?

    Read the article, look for this reference at the end:

    Sanderson, EW. et. al.2002. The Human Footprint and the Last of the Wild. Bioscience 52 (10).891-904.

    All the methodology is there, so quit whining about it being missing. The Wildlife Conservation Society article is just a summary of this peer-reviewed scientific paper. They didn't just pull the numbers out of a hat, and they include things like distance from roads. Also, they say that grazing lands are difficult to map, and most likely underestimated in this study. Even the American West isn't free of the influence of humans in the great "empty" stretches; it's almost all been roaded, grazed, logged and/or mined. Not to mention all the rivers being dammed.
  6. Re:Hmmm -- READ THE ARTICLE by gowen · · Score: 5, Informative · on Humans Use 83 Percent of Earth's Surface
    ater is on the surface of the earth. how else would you describe where the water is?
    But if you look at their map, its pretty clear they're not counting the oceans. And if they were, the figure would be nowhere near 83%, as a moment's thought would have made clear.

    I appreciate that this is slashdot and the idea of a moment's thought before a smartass comment is utterly alien.
  7. Re:Here's some more information about the beastie. by Uncle+Warthog · · Score: 2, Informative · on Lowe's Servaline Genet

    Oops! Here's the link