[Bigh4u2]

"A Canadian team said in the journal Nature, as The Times reported in July 2010, that the world's phytoplankton had been disappearing at a rate of about 1% a year for the previous 100 years.

"A global decline of this magnitude? It's quite shocking," Daniel Boyce,"

Ok Danny boy.. help me out here.

1. Either you suck at math or the phytoplankton is now gone.

Or...

2. That the percentage of biomass is reduced by 1% per year over the total 100 years based on some made up arbitrary number of what you think the total mass was to begin with.

Or...

3. You're just talking out your butt.

I'm picking number 3.

[prisoner6]

Well he is talking our of his but however ...oh I just got up and don't want to do the math. It's kind of like reverse interest. Say you start with 1 dollar and increase at 1 percent per year.

At the end of the first year you have 1 dollar AND 1 cent. The next years interest is earned on the 1 dollar and 1 cent so you make a bit MORE.

Now do the same thing but in reverse.

My head hurts.

[bossmechanic]

Far be it from me to defend this drivel but, it could be the writer means each year the count is down 1% from the year before - a geometric progression that does not end in zero - kinda like walking half way to the wall with each step.

But a projection like this requires that you accurately measure the phytowhaterver count every year. To my knowledge, there was not/is not a yearly plankton census commencing in 1912.

These people are so unhappy when the sky isn’t falling.
What a dismal life.

[Choozer]

Bump!