Conservation, Global Warming, and Wild Places

[TravisK]

So in another forum I use there was a thread on global warming. and I posted the following...

"How much do our concrete jungles affect the earths median temps?
Searched.... http://phys.org/news/2008-09-white-roof ... lobal.html

3% of the earth is covered by Urban sprawl.
http://www.newgeography.com/content/001 ... red-cities

>40% of the land on earth is covered in agriculture and farm land.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news ... s_map.html

When will we stop covering up the planet with our human mold? "

Regarding urban sprawl, when I looked that up I was actually surprised it wasn't a greater percentage. But I was pretty surprised about the agricultural land percentage.

What are your thoughts? Do you know of any newer and more updated statistics on this?

[jonathan]

Yeah, I found out about 3 years ago that nearly half the Earth is covered by human activity now, and it blew my mind.

Here's a crazy stat to add on. 70% of that agricultural land use is for meat or in order to grow crops to support meat.


When you think of how small a % of the world's population can afford a significant amount of meat in their diet...it's clear that a minority of the population is using most of the Earth's resources for themselves.

[TravisK]

I have started eating >70% raw veggies either whole, extrated, or juiced. I still like my protein but I am eating a lot less of it now. Grains and the like are taking the back stage to my intake these days and I am feeling much better by doing so. I would say grains/carbs/etc were previously about 70-80% of my intake. I am turning into a granola hippy...