[Antoninus]

I think she was talking about the massive deforestation in the Amazon basin and in Indonesia, in the tropics, in other words...replacing forests with range land. It does have an environemental impact. It directly affects the water shed, how much rain an area gets, and what carrying capacity for growing things the land has. And they aren't replanting and practicing the type of land management that is used in the US.

But that's not what the article implied, was it?

[RightWhale]

that's not what the article implied

Yes, it was. They see the whole planet between some latitudes that do not include Fairbanks, Alaska, and the time they see North America is a small fraction of the time they spend seeing land masses.

[Knitting A Conundrum]

Antoninus said: But that's not what the article implied, was it?

Oh yeah? The astronaut said: "Sometimes you can see how there is erosion, and you can see how there is deforestation. It's very widespread in some parts of the world," Collins said in a conversation from space with Japanese officials in Tokyo, including Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.

What part of some parts of the world tells you she was talking about the US? The parts of the earth with widespread deforestation are not in the US, but in the tropics, especially the Amazon basin and Indonesia. It is seeable from space. I have seen pics from some of the satellites and there are times where an amazing number of fires are burning up the forestlands there.

Here's a pic from 2003 that shows the huge numbers of fires, most intentionally set, to clar land (and it's just from a small piece of Brazil:

http://www.osei.noaa.gov/Events/Fires/Brazil/2003/FSMHSbrazil288_N6.jpg

Too big to post here here. Every single red flick is a fire. And the smoke is visible from space. And the burned clearings afterwards are too.

Some parts of the world are deforested. Some parts of the world practice good land management. No where did she say the US was guilty of being eroded and deforested. Draw what conclusions you like, I didn't see where she implied where the US was in that condition.