Editing Extremes on Earth (section)

==Humans and biogeography==
[[File:Mollweide Cycle.gif|thumb|400px|On land, vegetation appears on a scale from brown (low vegetation) to dark green (heavy vegetation); at the ocean surface, phytoplankton are indicated on a scale from purple (low) to yellow (high).]]

[[File:WorldCenterOfPopulation.png|thumb|400px|For representational purposes only: The point on earth closest to everyone in the world on average was calculated to be in Central Asia, with a mean distance of {{convert|5000|km|sigfig=1|sp=us}}. Its [[antipodes|antipodal point]] is correspondingly the ''farthest'' point from everyone on earth, and is located in the [[Pacific Ocean|South Pacific]] near [[Easter Island]], with a mean distance of {{convert|15000|km|sp=us}}. The data used by this figure is lumped at the country level, and is therefore precise only to country-scale distances, larger nations heavily skewed. Far more granular data -- kilometer level, is now available -- compares with this old "textbook" example.]]

In contrast to places with the highest density of life, like terrestrial<ref name="Bar-On Phillips Milo pp. 6506–6511">{{cite journal | last1=Bar-On | first1=Yinon M. | last2=Phillips | first2=Rob | last3=Milo | first3=Ron | title=The biomass distribution on Earth | journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | volume=115 | issue=25 | date=21 May 2018 | issn=0027-8424 | doi=10.1073/pnas.1711842115 | pages=6506–6511| pmid=29784790 | pmc=6016768 | bibcode=2018PNAS..115.6506B | doi-access=free }}</ref> tropical regions, and beside local extreme conditions, which might only be overcome by [[extremophiles]], there are areas of extreme low amounts of life.

Next to terrestrial lifeless areas like the [[Antarctic desert]]'s [[McMurdo Dry Valleys]] and its [[Don Juan Pond]], the most lifeless area in the ocean studied (other than the more general [[Dead zone (ecology)|dead zones]]) is the [[South Pacific Gyre]],<ref name="sediment">{{cite journal|last=D'Hondt|first=Steven|date=July 2009|journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America|volume=106|issue=28|url=https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090622171408.htm|title = Subseafloor Sediment In South Pacific Gyre One Of Least Inhabited Places On Earth|display-authors=etal|doi=10.1073/pnas.0811793106|pmid=19561304|pages=11651–11656|pmc=2702254|bibcode=2009PNAS..10611651D|doi-access=free}}</ref> corresponding to the [[Point Nemo|oceanic pole of inaccessibility]].

The oceanic pole of inaccessibility is also the [[Antipodes|antipodal]] area of the human [[center of population]] which lies today around southern [[Central Asia]]. Similarly the [[world economy|world's economic]] center of gravity has been drifting since [[Classical antiquity|antiquity]] from Central Asia to Northern Europe and contemporarily back to Central Asia.<ref name="Kabashkin Mikulko p.">{{cite journal | last1=Kabashkin | first1=Igor | last2=Mikulko | first2=Jelena | title=Model of Decision Support for Alternative Choice in the Large Scale Transportation Transit System | journal=Unpublished | year=2014 | doi=10.13140/2.1.1874.9440 | url=http://rgdoi.net/10.13140/2.1.1874.9440 | access-date=28 August 2022 | page=}}</ref> The related centre of gravity of the worlds [[carbon emission]] has shifted from Britain during the [[Industrial Revolution]] to the Atlantic, back again and contemporarily into Central Asia.<ref name="Kommenda 2021">{{cite web | last=Kommenda | first=Niko | title=UK, US, China: how the world's carbon 'centre of gravity' moved over 200 years | website=the Guardian | date=13 October 2021 | url=https://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2021/oct/13/uk-us-china-how-the-worlds-carbon-centre-of-gravity-moved-over-200-years | access-date=28 August 2022}}</ref>