The Great Wall of China
No, this isn’t about Google censoring searches in China.
It is a basic question spawned by a comment in the Dilbert Blog.
If you know the history of the Great Wall, it was highly successful in keeping out animals.
Seriously, was it good at keeping out animals?
Given the age of the wall and the length, if it were any good at keeping out animals, I would expect there to be some differentiation between various species that lived on either side of the wall. Not much, certainly, as the wall is pretty young in the global age.
Has there been a study of the environmental impact of the Great Wall?
January 31st, 2006 at 1:47 am
Wow, that’s actually a really good question. If you find out the answer, please let us know!
January 31st, 2006 at 3:11 am
The main study seems to encompass only plant life.
http://english.people.com.cn
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
http://www.sciencemag.org
Of note is that “habitat… fragmentation at a variety of spatial scales has been widely acknowledged as a primary cause of the decline of many species worldwide.” ref
Further reading on habitat fragmentation may lead you to some healthy speculation on the wall’s effects.
January 31st, 2006 at 3:16 am
Fix those links >.