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RSS FeedMatters of Scale - The Invisibility of Mountains
Population of the seven largest cities in the world (Tokyo, Mexico City, Sao Paulo, New York, Shanghi, Calcutta, and Bombay), combined | 119 million |
Population of the Himalaya Mountains | 121 million |
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Just as they so often do in art, mountains in the real world of commerce and politics are likely to serve as a kind of out-of-focus backdrop for more "important" subjects. And when mountains become the objects of direct attention at all, they are generally seen as unmoving and immutable. That such massive monoliths of rock and ice could also include highly complex, ever-changing, and vulnerable ecosystems - and be home to diverse cultures - seems inconceivable. -Derek Denniston | |
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Number of World Bank projects in the fiscal years 1989-1994 aimed at improving the lives of peoples or protecting environments | 1588 |
Number of these projects targeted directly to mountain peoples or environments | 13 |
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There are four rules for living in the mountains: let there be no formations in trees, no arrangement of rocks, no sumptuousness in the living house, no contrivance in the human heart. -Chinese Proverb | |
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Height, in meters, of one of the Star mountains of Papua New Guinea, which is sacred to the Wopkaimin people, but on which copper is now being mined for export to Japan | 2330 |
Approximate height, in meters, this sacred mountain will be after the mine closes | 0 |
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Though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing?. It profit me nothing -1 Corinthians 13:2-4 | |
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Percent of New York City that is protected environment or parkland | 13 |
?Percent of the Alps that is | 3 |
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Sources: World Bank lending: World Bank Annual Report, various years; Population of Himalaya: Derek Denniston, High Priorities: Conserving Mountain Ecosystems and Cultures, Worldwatch Paper 123, 1995; Copper mining: Minewatch Briefing No. 13, London, June 1991, and Mining Journal, May 6, 1994; Chinese proverb: Lin Yutang, The Wisdom of China and India, 1942; Parkland in New York City: 1995 Information Please Almanac; Parkland in Alps: GeoJournal, May 1992, cited in Denniston.
