Perfect planning

An alarming environmental story that doesn't seem so alarming when you read it through the second time:

Southern Indiana's rolling hills are greener now than they were a century ago, but the region's rate of reforestation may be on the verge of being outpaced by suburban sprawl's deforestation, according to a new report by Indiana University Bloomington and University of Minnesota researchers in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

We're greener now than 100 years ago, but the rate of reforestation may be on the verge of being outpaced by by suburban sprawl. Lord, call in the planning police so they can herd us into high-rise apartments.

If you get through the jargon and planning esoterica, you learn that "the models" can't predict what will happen because people make decisions about what to do based on other than economic reasons. But the planners have to try to figure us out anyway:

". . . We don't say it's necessarily possible to predict what our landscapes might look like 10 or 20 years from now. Ultimately what we want to do is give policymakers better insight into what different types of outcomes might happen so they can make planning decisions to cope with those possible outcomes."

Guess they have to head us off from making horrible land-use decisions and be ready to clean up after us if they fail.