Gambia-L:

The following article is interesting, but the mention of a prominent "Doctor"
within our midst makes it a better read.  Enjoy!

Regards,


Awa Sey


CNN.COM --  Wednesday, October 23, 2002 Posted: 1:43 PM EDT (1743 GMT)


WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Humans take up 83 percent of the Earth's land surface
to live on, farm, mine or fish, leaving just a few areas pristine for
wildlife, according to a new report this week.
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 (WCS) and Columbia University's Center for
International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) in New York.
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 few remaining wild areas include the northern forests of Alaska, Canada
and Russia; the high plateaus of Tibet and Mongolia; and much of the Amazon
River Basin.
"The map of the human footprint is a clear-eyed view of our influence on the
Earth," Eric Sanderson, a landscape ecologist for the WCS, who led the
report, said in a statement.
"It provides a way to find opportunities to save wildlife and wild lands in
pristine areas, and also to understand how conservation in wilderness,
countryside, suburbs, and cities are all related." Antarctica and a few
Arctic land patches were not included in the study because of the lack of
data and near absence of human influences, said Malanding Jaiteh, senior
staff associate at CIESIN.

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