Handful of states hold fate of world's vanishing wilderness

More than 70 percent of Earth's last untouched wilderness lies in the territories of just five countries, scientists said Wednesday -- mostly nations that alarm environmentalists with their lukewarm response to climate change. New research published in the journal Nature found that nearly three quarters of the wilderness that's left belongs to Australia, Brazil, Canada, Russia, and the US. "For the first time we've mapped both land and marine wilderness and showed that there's actually not much left," James Watson, professor of conservation science at the University of Queensland and lead paper author, told AFP.