Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Humans Use 83 Percent of Earth's Surface

Posted by michael on from the area-51-still-pretty-vacant dept.

belloc writes "CNN is reporting on a Wildlife Conservation Society report that states that humans take up 83 percent of the Earth's land surface to live on, farm, mine or fish. The article rerers to a WCS human footprint map, but the WCS site seems to have been CNN'd. Funny: I just got back from a little road trip across the southwest, and from all the nothing you see out there, you would think that 83% is a bit high. I guess Arizona farmlands must look a lot like wild, untouched desert."

8 of 678 comments (clear)

  1. Hmmm by gowen · · Score: 5, Funny

    They use the Earth's surface to fish? Now that is a technological breakthrough worth discussing...

    --
    Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.
    1. Re:Hmmm by unicron · · Score: 5, Funny

      Yeah, but the article says "land area". Whenever I attempt to fish on land I don't get shit. Except land sharks, but that's a whole other story.

      --
      Finally, math books without any of that base 6 crap in them.
    2. Re:Hmmm by nautical9 · · Score: 5, Funny

      What... you mean you don't feed your family with Squirrel Fishing?

    3. Re:Hmmm by Dr+Caleb · · Score: 5, Funny
      Fish farms come to my mind...

      How deep do you have to plant them?

      --
      "History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme." Mark Twain
  2. only 83%? by User+956 · · Score: 5, Funny

    We've only got 83% of the globe? God must be disappointed.

    --
    The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
  3. The truman show by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    That reminds me of the movie, "The Truman Show" where Truman wants to be an explorer and his teacher pulls down a map and says, "Awww, you're too late, everything's been explored already."

    --
    Lookerup.com - your technology resource.

  4. In other news ... by cascadingstylesheet · · Score: 5, Funny

    ... bacteria use 99% of the Earth's surface for, er, bacterial purposes ...

  5. Arizona by rppp01 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Let me tell you about arizona farms.

    They are mostly used to raise dirt and rocks. Sometimes scrubs, as they are worth a lot in the black market. But, we arizona farmers are after the ripe harvest of dirt. Good, clean dirt, too. None of this wet 'mud' stuff everyone else seems to prize. Sure, it doesn't grow much, but that's exactly what we want. We can then harvest it, and then lay it down in front of our houses for a wonderously rocky/sandy type of look. Oh, and don't forget, it brightens things up a bit, too.

    --
    They stuck me in an institution, said it was the only solution, to...protect me from the enemy, myself