Ten square kilometres

After reading some news today I got to wondering on the best way of showing what 1000 hectares, or 10Km2, looks like. So after humming and hahing and trying different lines of thought, this one came up:

This is one of the famous photos of Hiroshima after The Bomb was dropped upon it in 1945 and as it happens, the estimated area of total devastation was calculated at around 10km2. Which also fits quite nicely with the news story I was talking about, as here it is (translated):

Alert in the Tambopata Nature Reserve: In one year more than 1000 hectares have been deforested by informal miners

This satellite image shows the advance of informal mining in the Tambopata Nature Reserve (Madre de Dios region) and its buffer zone. As can be seen, in just one year the miners' actions have gone from being a near invisible spot in the distance to a brown fingerprint of deforestation and depredation that has covered areas that were once primary forest.

According to the information gathered, between November 2010 and October 2011 the zone deforested by miners has grown from 100 to 1583 hectares. This image is also evidence that the zone affected by the miners' actions has reached the actual Tambopata Nature Reserve and not only to its buffer zone

The article continues here and there's a lot more information contained. It's worth noting however that this area featured in the report and satellite shots is just one of the dozens of zones being deforested by informal mining in the jungle regions of Peru, all in the search for gold and often bankrolled by the very same local politicians who should be guarding against this most digusting of mining activity.

¡Viva Investment Grade! ¡Viva, viva, viva!