The Skeptical Environmentalist - Errors and corrections
Errors & Corrections
p16,1: "This seemed rather amazing to me, since most sources estimate about 20 percent." The last part should read: "since most sources estimate 20 to 25 percent." Thanks to WRI/WWF.
p17,2: "marine food production has almost doubled since 1970." Should be "marine food production has increased almost 60 percent since 1970." Thanks to WRI/WWF.
p30,1: "global catch has increased by 75 percent" should be 55 percent.
p111,2: "forests had shrunk from 27.25 percent" should read "27.15" which is also pointed out in endnote 770, p376. Thanks to David Sandalow, Executive Vice President of World Wildlife Fund.
p128-9: "Nuclear energy constitutes 6 percent of global energy production and 20 percent in the countries that have nuclear power" should be "Nuclear energy constitutes 6 percent of global energy production and 20 percent of the electricity generation in the countries that have nuclear power." Thanks to John Holdren.
p135,2: "Moreover energy can be stored in hydrogen by catalyzing water." Should have been electrolyzing, not catalyzing. Thanks to John Holdren.
p250,1: "By far the majority of these species are to be found among the insects, such as beetles, ants, flies, and worms, as well as fungi, bacteria and viruses." Worms are not insects and the sentence should read: "By far the majority of these species are to be found among the insects, such as beetles, ants, and flies, as well as worms, fungi, bacteria and viruses. Thanks to David Sandalow, Executive Vice President of World Wildlife Fund.
p280,1: In the text I have erroneously interchanged the B1 and B2 scenarios (though not in the graph, Figure 149) and thus, the criticism in endnote 2304 is incorrect. Thanks to Dr. Arthur C. Petersen, Faculty of Philosophy, Vrije Universiteit.
Endnotes
p355, endnote 103: "Goudie (1993:43) estimates 20 percent; Williams (1994:104) 7.5 percent and Richards (1990:164) 19 percent during the last 300 years. IPCC also estimate a global forest area reduction of 20 percent from 1850 to 1990 (2001a:3.2.2.2)." This should read: "Goudie (1993:43) estimates 20 percent loss since the pre-agricultural period, probably from Matthews 1983, and Williams (1994:106) estimates 16 percent loss since the pre-agricultural period. We do not have other estimates going back to pre-agricultural times, but several estimates from the last centuries, where deforestation has been by far the most intense. Thus, these estimates should be just slight underestimates of the entire pre-agricultural deforestation. Here, Richards (1990:164) estimate 19 percent forest loss during the last 300 years, and IPCC estimate a global forest area reduction of 20 percent from 1850 to 1990 (2001a:3.2.2.2)." Thanks to WRI/WWF.
p375, endnote 767: "The two long time-series of forest area depicted are Forests and Woodland, which was discontinued from 1995 onwards, whereas the new estimates are for closed forest, i.e. 20 percent of forest cover in the industrialized world and 10 percent in the developing world (FAO 1997c:173-4)." Here the last part of the sentence should read: "i.e. with tree canopy cover of more than 20 percent in the industrialized world and more than 10 percent in the developing world (FAO 1997c:173-4)." Thanks to WRI/WWF.
Bibliography.
Stork, Nigel E. 1997 "Measuring global biodiversity and its decline." referes incorrectly to Wilson et al. 1997:41-68, should be Reaka-Kudla et al. 1997:41-68.




