Thanks to Kris Moorman for forwarding this to me.

Tom Mathews,
Sierra Club, Iowa Chapter Urban Sprawl issue chair

Reuters
Wednesday, October 23, 2002


PEOPLE USE 83% OF LAND

WASHINGTON -- Humans take up 83 percent of the earth's land surface to live
on, farm or mine, leaving just a few areas pristine for wildlife, a report
issued yesterday said.

People also have taken advantage of 98 percent of the land that can be
farmed for rice, wheat or corn, said the report, produced by scientists from
the Wildlife Conservation Society and Columbia University.

Their map, published on the Internet at http://www.wcs.org/humanfootprint,
adds together influences from population density, access from roads and
waterways, electrical-power infrastructure and the area used by cities and
farms.

The remaining wild areas include the forests of Alaska, Canada and Russia;
the high plateaus of Tibet and Mongolia; and much of the Amazon River basin.

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