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Does anyone have an authoritative, scientific resource that can quantify human impact on Earth in our presumably negative ways? I want to understand more about

Does anyone have an authoritative, scientific resource that can quantify human impact on Earth in our presumably negative ways? I want to understand more about the issues as a whole but from a macro standpoint, ideally backed with numbers and science from a trusted third party.

dylangs1030 13y ago
The EPA's Memo of "Endangerment Finding": http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/Downloads/endangerment/EndangermentFinding_ClimateChangeFacts.pdf http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/Downloads/endangerment/Enda... The National Academy of Sciences: http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=10139&page=1 http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=10139&page=1 The InterGovernmental Panel on Climate Change: http://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/ar4/wg1/en/spmsspm-understanding-and.html http://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/ar4/wg1/en/spmsspm-... ^ About as scientific as it gets, attributing global climate change trends since the beginning of the 20th century to human beings with over 90% certainty.
brc 13y ago
You will never get an authoritative unbiased scientific resource. There is no agreed measure on what 'impact' means, and whether that is positive or negative. One persons fantastic city is anothers urban blight on pristine wilderness. All published data are biased in some direction. You can measure conversion of wilderness to farmland, farmland to cities, displacement of wildlife, and many other factors. Much of the data is modelled. All of it is produced to prove one point of the other. Even when people agree on the data, they will disagree on the positive or negative impacts. The trusted third party is a mirage. All you can do is interpret the supplied data and arguments and make up your own mind.