Bombs Away For Biodiversity

You could see Greenpeacers' heads exploding in confusion at the World Wildlife Fund when they read this:

Military exercises are boosting biodiversity, according to a study of land used for US training manoeuvres in Germany. Such land has more endangered species than nearby national parks.

The land is uncultivated, but also churned up by tank tracks and explosions. This creates habitat both for species that prefer pristine lands and those that require disturbed ground, explains ecologist Steven Warren of Colorado State University in Fort Collins.

Military land can host more species than agricultural land, Warren told a meeting of the Ecological Society of America in Montreal. What's more, its biodiversity can also exceed that of natural parks, where species that need disturbance cannot get a foothold.

Too often, environmentalists decry man's activities as though man were an invasive foreign species. Yet is not man a part of the natural order himself?

Somebody should tell the Green Party about this. They'll be screaming for a military buildup so vast they'll make the Tories look like a bunch of NDP peaceniks.

Source: Nature