[krilly]

The number is meaningless to the public anyway. I have absolutely no frame of reference for how many animals live in a certain area. For all I know, 500m ants get killed by a period of fairly heavy rainfall.

It's more annoying when numbers are misrepresented that we DO have real world experience of, for instance sea level rise. Many people are under the impression that global warming will cause skyscrapers to become submerged, or the majority of the Earth's land area to disappear. All within a few decades.

People may argue that it's useful for people to believe this, but I don't want a society of useful idiots. I want a society of skeptics.

[nsonha]

was watching a video about the sinking of Jakarta. The biggest contributing factor is actually ground water abstraction and consequently, contraction of the city foundation, not sea level rising.