Stunning map (click the multimedia popup) of the impact of human settlement on the lower 48. The nearest (to us here in Boswash) perceptible bit of green-shaded near-wilderness is a valley in northern Pennsylvania.

More complete data, including a world map, is available from the Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) at Columbia University. The largest tracts of dark-green wilderness are in Canada, the Amazon, the Sahara, Siberia, and the Australian Outback.

posted: 6:00:25 PM