How much land is inhabited by humans

The paper, published June 3 in the prestigious journal Sciencehas key policy implications for nations negotiating new conservation targets for under the umbrella of the United Nations. This post global biodiversity framework of the Convention on Biological Diversity will come into effect later this year and set the next conservation agenda for participating nations. The paper also says 1. Lead author James R.

Using a combination of recent global maps of human influence, researchers were able to calculate the average influence humans are having on ecosystems worldwide. F or as long as humans have existed they have impacted their surrounding environment. As the devastating effects of anthropogenic climate change unravel worldwide, it is hardly surprising that many people favour this view. Whilst it is evident that mankind profoundly impacts the natural environment, being able to quantify this is more challenging. In the study, researchers combined four different global maps of human influence to determine the average human influence for different regions in the world.

How much land is inhabited by humans

Pianka "Land, they aren't making any more of it" -- Will Rogers Despite claims to the contrary, humans cannot live without food and water. One third of Earth's surface is desert which supports very few people. People can visit deserts but long-term survival in desert regions is very tenuous. Cities built in deserts like Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Phoenix, and Tuscon, cannot exist without importing water or pumping groundwater out of deep aquifers. Indeed, they all face serious water shortages. Similarly, humans cannot sustain themselves for very long in mountains, though we often visit these regions on a temporary basis. Humans have occupied almost all of Earth's habitable lands. Some like to assert that everybody on Earth could be fit into the State of Texas, using logic as follows. The area of Texas is about , mi 2. Dividing this figure by the current human population of 7 billion leaves each person with about square feet, a small plot the size of a big room about 33 ft x 33 ft. Sounds plausible enough, right? Without going into the fact that almost half the State is desert, notice we have not allowed for any roads, shopping malls, schools, hospitals, football stadiums, prisons, sewage plants, rivers, lakes, reservoirs, golf courses, parks, and what else?

If all the habitable land on Earth were equally distributed among all human beings present on the planet, this is the per capita share of good land per person.

This question is an interesting one because, when my friend asked me the other day, I could tell her confidently that not only did science know the answer, science had multiple different ways to quantify that answer, but that I had absolutely no idea what it was. Landcover is one key way that we can measure how much of the terrestrial environment has been covered by humans. The thing is, landcover is something that is changing and our technology to estimate it is improving constantly, so even fairly recent estimates may already be out of date. A meta-analysis in , which included studies of urban landcover using remote sensing technology such as satellite images, found that urban landcover increased by nearly 60, km 2 between and In the year , estimates suggest that globally, urban land covered somewhere between , and 3.

By Jonathan Lambert. April 15, at am. Lions, hyenas and other top predators still stalk herds of wildebeests over a million strong, preventing them from eating too much vegetation. In turn, such species carry seeds or pollen across the plains, enabling plant reproduction. Humans are there too, but in relatively low densities. Over the last years, too many species have been lost, or their numbers reduced, researchers report April 15 in Frontiers in Forests and Global Change. Of the few fully intact ecosystems, only about 11 percent fall within existing protected areas, the researchers found. But chunks of the species-rich rainforests of the Amazon, Congo and Indonesia also remain intact. Identifying such places is crucial, he says, especially for regions under threat of development that require protection, like the Amazon rainforest. Conservation scientists have long tried to map how much of the planet remains undegraded by human activity.

How much land is inhabited by humans

Using a combination of recent global maps of human influence, researchers were able to calculate the average influence humans are having on ecosystems worldwide. F or as long as humans have existed they have impacted their surrounding environment. As the devastating effects of anthropogenic climate change unravel worldwide, it is hardly surprising that many people favour this view. Whilst it is evident that mankind profoundly impacts the natural environment, being able to quantify this is more challenging. In the study, researchers combined four different global maps of human influence to determine the average human influence for different regions in the world. Interestingly, their findings show that whilst the maps analysed use different methodologies they show similar results for the level of human influence across the globe. Importantly, the level of human influence varies significantly from biome to biome.

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Which to trust? Carbon markets could protect nature and the planet, but only if the rights of those who live there are recognized too. Volcanos probably have a greater impact despite the infrequency of catastrophic eruptions — they shut down travel and pollute the ocean and harm humans. Ultimately there is no one right answer to this question since there are many ways to interpret it — I tried to present a number of different ways of looking at the same question and provide some kind of answer to each. We contribute only about 0. LinkedIn 0. This question is an interesting one because, when my friend asked me the other day, I could tell her confidently that not only did science know the answer, science had multiple different ways to quantify that answer, but that I had absolutely no idea what it was. Non-subscribers can email Thomas Worsdell to obtain a copy. Become a Patron! Indeed, they all face serious water shortages. While your plan will apparently support 40 billion people, why would we want this? Human civilisations can still populate a landscape and have low influence over its environment but it is a case of taking a more balanced approach towards conservation efforts. Share this article Each Share makes a difference and potentially gets our article in front of many times the number without shares.

The analysis focuses on large swaths of land, about 3, square miles each, to account for the amount of habitat required by wide-ranging species. The study takes into account three measures of ecological integrity: habitat intactness, which is how human activity has affected the land; faunal intactness, which looks at species loss; and functional intactness, which focuses on species loss among animals that contribute to the health of an ecosystem. The new study also shows up to 20 percent of affected ecosystems could be restored to their pre-industrial health with the reintroduction of five or fewer important species.

Therefore, these human-dominated landscapes can actually help mitigate the climate crisis and support biodiversity if managed effectively. How much land does it take to support a human being? Biodiversity Climate Change Conservation. One example of this is urban wetlands, which are being constructed in order to adapt to extreme weather events and flooding in urban areas, such as in Laos, by controlling water flow and filtration. Humans have disturbed a very small portion of the earths surface. Doing some writing research and this is usual :O. However, even non-urban areas contain roads, train tracks, farms and other marks of human domination. Ultimately there is no one right answer to this question since there are many ways to interpret it — I tried to present a number of different ways of looking at the same question and provide some kind of answer to each. Non-subscribers can email Thomas Worsdell to obtain a copy. The zealots included land which is being farmed and forested, but this land is not subject to any kind of contamination. The authors also emphasized that all the identified land should not necessarily be designated as protected areas, but rather managed through a wide range of strategies for species and ecosystem conservation, including effective sustainable land-use policies.