climate and ecosystems

Environmental problems in this collection tend to be failures of measurement and management across whole landscapes. Between 50 and 100 million hectares of Brazilian pasture are degraded and nobody can sort them by stage of degradation. Desertification indices built for the Sahel give meaningless readings in Patagonia. Successful fertilizer use creates growing dead zones downstream. Often a tool or index works in one place and fails in another without anyone noticing.