Changing Planet Revealed In Atlas

ring writes "The United Nations Environmental Programme (Unep) has released a new atlas 'One Planet Many People: Atlas of our Changing Environment', to mark World Environment Day (WED). It compares and contrasts spectacular satellite images of the past few decades with contemporary ones." From the BBC article: "Among the transformations highlighted in the atlas are the huge growth of greenhouses in southern Spain, the rapid rise of shrimp farming in Asia and Latin America and the emergence of a giant, shadow puppet-shaped peninsula at the mouth of the Yellow River that has built up through transportation of sediment in the waters."

Comments

Lemna

[Espectr0]

I was curious to find that 5th picture, talking about using insects to control a green swirl of something that appeared somewhere.

I wish they could visit our lake. Last year it had a huge crop of lemna, shown here.

What you see is not a tennis court but a big piece of the lake being covered in the thing. This lake is lake maracaibo in venezuela.

Distorted Picture

[Anonymous Coward]

In North America at least, the trend has been going largely in the opposite direction. We are seeing REforestation rather than DEforestation. This is in despite of an increasing population.

It can be a little tough to find good data given all the bullshit flying around but here's a map that shows the amount of forest land in the US from 1620 onwards:

http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/1605/gg96rpt/chap7.htm l

The interesting things is that we are see a dramatic resurgence of forest land here in the US. A big part of the reason, apparently, is more efficient farming practices which have allowed us to restore a lot of farmland back to forests. Here's a map showing the trends from 1982 to 1997:

http://www.ers.usda.gov/Briefing/LandUse/Gallery/m ap1.htm

A move to more densley packed cities is also a contributing factor to reforestation.

Article such as the one Zonk cited are a favorite of the hard left environmental movement. These 'studies' cherry pick data to paint an alarmist picture. The media usually swallow these article whole with little crtical thought. In the end, these distorted pictures don't do anything to help real environmental progress.

Re:Same with you!

[micheas]

Corp Watch has an article that has a couple of interesting points about water in India and World Environment day's premire sponsor, Coke

All of the cities in India that have a Coke plant blame part of their water shortage on Coke.

Coke in India has toxins in it.

Coke's defence is, well it is a drought, and the USDA doesn't have a problem with what we are selling. They have never challenged (to the best of my research) the fact that their is lead in the soft drinks, just the fact that it is unsafe

Coke is trucking water into the villages that it has plants, as a good will gesture

Coke offered Coke as fertilizer to farmers, but it turned out to have lead in it that made the land unfit for farming.

How can we "use up" the earth's water? It all remains here doesn't it?

We don't use up the water. We contaminate it. and while extracting plutonium from water is fairly stright forward, it is very expensive due to the fact that you really do have to get essentially all of it not 99% of it.

Most farmers vote on a single issue. Water rights.

So yes we will not run out of water, but we may well wind up with far less potable water than there is demand for.

As a bit of indirectg evidence that Humans are the problem. The only place on the planet that has a healthy eco system of large mammals is in the areas of Cambodia that have so many land mines that pochers refuse to go, and large crocs only exist in the war torn regions of Africa.

The statement that there are enough resources for humans, falls apart if you asume that we are to be living in an ecosystem and not trying to manufacture everything we need.

Back to water. Have you noticed the number of public drinking fountains lately? They were everywhere thirty years ago. Now They are almost extinct. Do you pay a water bill? Have you pulled on up from twenty years ago?

Why do you think that Intel recycles 3 million gallons of water a day, and puts it on their website?

I am not someone who is anti-development. 500,000 people are going to move to California next year, and I am one of those lobbying that we should be building housing for these people, and that the new housing should be near the city centers.

Yes, many of the Indians that are objecting to Coke are Marxists, and Coke is doing a lot to sanitize thier image. But, that does not change the fact that their is a big fight over potable water, indicating the potable water is indicating that it is a limited resource.