Discuss.

12/11/2005 12:29:48 PM

STOP SPRAWL. HUNT HUMANS.

12/11/2005 1:21:05 PM

LOL, I SO WANNA DO YOU RIGHT NOW.

12/11/2005 1:27:08 PM

Hunting is just about my least concern regarding sprawl.

12/11/2005 1:56:58 PM

I agree, Shadowrunner. This thread was supposed to bring to light one of the problems with our trend of umbrella parties. Republicans are typically in support of unbridled development ("Oh, the market will balance everything out. Not to worry!") But they are also the party that supposedly protects the rights of gun owners, particularly hunters...

12/11/2005 2:00:19 PM

yea we got that

12/11/2005 2:02:21 PM

12/11/2005 2:04:56 PM

LOL, Excoriator is ridiculously sexy today.

12/11/2005 2:07:06 PM

the market balances things out...and you end up with giant, empty super-duper stores sitting on property that could be used for something useful. now you cant reclaim it. gg, guys.

12/11/2005 2:08:50 PM

haha, save hunting


you kill me

12/11/2005 2:21:30 PM

^^ Says who? If the land is no longer in use, I'm sure the building itself is worth something. Steel that can be recycled, concrete that can be ground up and reformulated. Ultimately, if there is a demand for it, I'm certain the Sierra Club would be willing to purchase abandoned/useless land for the purpose of clearing it and planting trees.

Not to mention, Nature is very adept at reclaiming abandoned land. We have more acreage of forest today than almost 100 years ago; all thanks to the rampant abandonment of small family farms in America.

12/11/2005 7:43:11 PM

^I'd like to see some statistics on this. Not because I doubt you, but because I'm truly curious.

12/11/2005 8:15:43 PM

i looked it up one time expecting to disprove someone but they were right

12/11/2005 8:20:07 PM

i just remember reading somewhere about the amt of empty large retail store space somewhere, its some astronomical #. I cant say I see it much in Raleigh, however, so who knows.

12/11/2005 8:21:56 PM

More total forest acres, but what's left is getting paved over at an astronomical rate. We pretty much clear-cut the eastern US by 1920 or so, but that land took over with 2nd and 3rd (4th..) growth forests after a few years.

I'm fine with development, but I wonder what things are going to look like in 50 years. Be nice to still have some open areas without having to travel 4 hours to get there.

12/11/2005 8:26:54 PM

if you want trees go to a park. and hunters...go to the grocery store, shooting range or simply play a video game if you just have to shoot something.

12/11/2005 9:18:31 PM

Quote :

"I'm fine with development, but I wonder what things are going to look like in 50 years. Be nice to still have some open areas without having to travel 4 hours to get there."

Well, that same process I alluded to has continued. North America has been revolutionized by large-scale corporate farming. As such, smaller farms continue to be uncompetitive. Isolated regions where corporate farming is unpractical continue to be abandoned back to nature.

Secondly, a newer process of urban abandonment began around the 1980s as small isolated villages and towns have been abandoned for brighter prospects in larger cities and their satellites. This is not hard to understand as the purpose of these small enclaves of civilization was to provide trade and services to small farms and other rural cottage activities which are no longer economically viable. This can be discerned statistically by the disparity between city growth rates and state-wide growth rates. For example, the population of Raleigh has consistently grown by over 10% a year for decades, while the overall state population has grown a far slower 1.6%.

All together, just in the last decade the total U.S. forest area has increased 1.7%.

http://www.unep.org/geo/pdfs/GEO-3%20Fact%20sheet%20N%20America.pdf

12/11/2005 10:16:05 PM

STOP SHOPPING. STOP SPRAWL

good luck

12/11/2005 10:17:36 PM

Well I guess we should all live in cramped tenements at the center of overcrowded, densely populated cities.

12/13/2005 7:09:38 PM

yes

12/13/2005 7:14:58 PM

Nope. Americans may be using less and less land area as time goes on, but per-capita living space continues to rise precipitously. Total urban acreage continues to rise but is entirely offset by falling amounts of acreage used for farming and rural townships.

[Edited on December 13, 2005 at 7:35 PM. Reason : ,.,]

12/13/2005 7:34:22 PM