For the Spring 2007 Environmental Geomatics lecture we were visited by Eric Sanderson of the Wildlife Conservation Society (via the Bronx Zoo).Dr. Sanderson spoke about his GIS mapping of the human footprint on the Earth. His mapping also highlighted the Last of the Wild areas on Earth. Its hard to imagine the Congo as an impacted landscape, but photos of a remote highway made the point. And the discussion about how rivers and streams even serve as highways into the Amazon suddenly make the wilderness sound so small. He also spoke a little, afterwards, about his work on the Mannahatta Project. Very exciting stuff.
So, the human footprint is pretty big. How big is yours? MyFootPrint.Org calculates your personal footprint. How many acres do you consume? If everone lived like the average American, we would need about five planets to supply them.
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