Domesticated wilderness

the thunder of beauty
not memories
not dreams


“There is no such thing as nature untainted by people”, writes Peter Kareiva, chief scientist at the Nature Conservancy.

Public land USA“Protecting nature through national and state parks has only domesticated these regions.

“Recreational use of wilderness land has increased 10 times in the past 40 years. Half of all wilderness areas are within a day’s drive of America’s 30 largest cities.

“Half of the world’s surface area is used for crops or grazing. More than half of all forests have been lost to land conversion. Six times as much water is held in artificial storage worldwide as is free-flowing.

“Facing this reality should change the scientific focus of environmental science.” [story, oops, link broken at PhysOrg. Peter Kareiva is the Chief Scientist at The Nature Conservancy]


Extra graphics to help visualize our world’s remaining wilderness areas, the first from Conservation International and the second from the 2004 Living Planet Report at WWF.

Global remaining wilderness areas

Global remaining wilderness areas (WWF)