They Paved Paradise and Put In A Parking Lot, indeed

NASA and NOAA have determined that the amount of concrete-paved surface (and I assume this means asphalt and such too) in the USA is approximately the size of the state of Ohio.

That's more than the amount of wetlands in the USA. And still growing by 10,000 miles of road and one million new homes a year. And that's not counting other countries, either.

Wow. That's a lot of green plants lost. I wonder if they have information about the rate of growth.....because I'd kinda like to know how long it it going to be before the Earth looks like Coruscant from Star Wars, or Trantor from Isaac Asimov'e Foundation novels.

This brought to mind a new cover of Joni Mitchell's "Big Yellow Taxi", I've recently been listening too, by Counting Crows and Vanessa Carlton. This is the song everyone probably remembers as "They Paved Paradise And Put In A Parking Lot"
Hey, the hippies and environmentalists warned us. We just haven't been listening...