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Charles Darwin's Best-Kept Secret

beschra writes "BBC writes of 'terra-forming' Ascension Island, one of the islands Charles Darwin visited. He and a friend encouraged the Royal Navy to import boatloads of trees and plants in an attempt to capture the little bit of water that fell on the island. They were quite successful. The island even has a cloud forest now. From the article: '[British ecologist] Wilkinson thinks that the principles that emerge from that experiment could be used to transform future colonies on Mars. In other words, rather than trying to improve an environment by force, the best approach might be to work with life to help it "find its own way."'"

8 of 254 comments (clear)

  1. Nice idea but it won't work by Yvan256 · · Score: 3, Funny

    The Royal Navy doesn't have any space ships.

  2. Re:Mars? by Yvan256 · · Score: 3, Funny

    The solution is easy. Just bring a few thousand music CDs.

  3. Units by Hognoxious · · Score: 4, Funny

    How many boat loads in a fuckton?

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    1. Re:Units by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 4, Funny

      That would be a shit load.

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      Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
  4. Re:"They were quite successful."???? by maxwell+demon · · Score: 2, Funny

    How they figure that?

    Well, you answered it yourself:

    I didn't see a Wal*Mart in the pictures!

    That's clearly success!

    --
    The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
  5. Re:"cloud forest " by multipartmixed · · Score: 2, Funny

    No, it's where Lando Calrissian goes camping.

    Duh!

    --

    Do daemons dream of electric sleep()?
  6. Re:Interesting tool by PatHMV · · Score: 3, Funny

    Fair question. How do you know they're suffering? Have YOU spoken to them?

  7. Re:Interesting tool by Grygus · · Score: 3, Funny

    Someone should write a book about a small Mars colony that toughs it out for 500 years, and then recolonizes the Earth after a super asteroid. Who knows what they would find?

    Zombies. You've just written the next big first-person shooter.