• About
    • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Climate News Network Archive
  • Contact
Celebrating our 1,000th edition. The climate news you need
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
No Result
View All Result
  FEATURED
Ex-Fossil Workers Convert Old Oilfields to Solar Farms After ‘Rapid Upskilling’ in Alberta June 29, 2022
London Becomes Biggest City to Sign Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty June 29, 2022
G7 Miss ‘Golden Opportunity’, Walk Back Pledge to Cut International Fossil Finance June 29, 2022
Soaring Fertilizer Prices Could Deliver ‘Silver Lining’ For Emissions, But Farmers Struggle to Limit Use June 26, 2022
BREAKING: UN Nature Summit, the ‘Paris Conference for Biodiversity’, Moves to Montreal in December June 19, 2022
Next
Prev
Home Climate News Network

New map reveals how roads devastate nature

January 17, 2017
Reading time: 4 minutes
Primary Author: Tim Radford

The temperate and mixed forests of the world are the most divided by roads.

The temperate and mixed forests of the world are the most divided by roads.

 

Scientists call for urgent protection of ecologically valuable roadless areas as map shows that roads lead to loss of biodiversity and damage to ecosystems.

LONDON, 17 January, 2017 – European, Brazilian and US scientists have delivered a new map of humanity’s mark on the world. Roads now fragment the terrestrial landscape and divide it into 600,000 patches – and only 7% of the roadless areas are larger than 100 square kilometres.

More than half of the patches are less than 1 sq km and four-fifths are less than 5 sq km. The implication is that humans are getting everywhere, and bringing with them noise, pollution, damage to wildlife and biological invaders.

About the only regions in which roads are few are the tundra, the deserts and the rock- and ice-covered highlands. The temperate and mixed forests of the world are the most divided by roads.

Pierre Ibisch, of Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development in Germany, and colleagues report in Science that they used citizen science and internet datasets, and reviewed 282 studies, to make the maps.

Construction of roads

They allowed a 1km buffer zone along each road, because the construction of any road creates disturbance, including the loss of timber. And they conclude that a third of the world’s roads are now in regions with low biodiversity, low ecological function and low ecosystem resilience.

They see those areas still beyond the reach of cars, trucks and tractors as vulnerable.

“Global protection of ecologically valuable roadless areas is inadequate,” they write. “International recognition and protection of roadless areas is urgently needed to halt their continued loss.”

Such studies are fresh ways of illustrating what scientists call the “Great Acceleration”: one human lifetime ago, the world was home to only 2.5bn people, and very few of them had cars.

By 2050, the world will build an estimated
25 million kilometres of new road lanes,
most of them in the developing world

UN scientists predict a population of at least 9bn people this century, and possibly a much higher number before 2100. The cities are expanding, and new built-up areas will cover more than 1 million sq km between now and 2040.

One team of researchers has just calculated that the human “technosphere” – the sum of all things humans have built or excavated – has reached a mass of 30 trillion metric tons.

By 2050, the world will build an estimated 25 million kilometres of new road lanes, most of them in the developing world.

Andrew Balmford, a professor of conservation science at the University of Cambridge in the UK, and colleagues argue in a separate study in the Public Library of Science journal Biology that it should be possible to devise a highway strategy that makes the best use of existing farmland, serves the greatest number of people and yet conserves the natural ecosystems that deliver services of profound value to all humanity.

Among these are water management, carbon storage, crop pollination, and plants and animals that could be the source of new foods and medicines.

Opposition

The researchers tested their argument in the Greater Mekong region of south-east Asia, a landscape that includes Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and some of Myanmar. It is home to 320 million people, 20,000 plant species, 2,000 terrestrial vertebrate species and 850 varieties of freshwater fish, and it has lost a third of its tropical forest in the past four decades.

“The Mekong region is home to some of the world’s most valuable tropical forests. It’s also a region in which a lot of roads are going to be built, and blanket opposition by the conservation community is unlikely to stop this,” says co-author Xu Jianchu, professor of ethnoecology at the Kunming Institute of Botany in China and regional coordinator for the World Agroforestry Centre.

“Studies like ours help pinpoint the projects we should oppose most loudly, while transparently showing the reasons why and providing alternatives where environmental costs are lower and development benefits are greater. Conservationists need to be active voices in infrastructure development.” – Climate News Network

 



in Climate News Network

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

stux / Pixabay
Air & Marine

Big Seven European Airlines Lag on Reducing Sky-High Emissions: Report

June 13, 2022
75
Ars Electronica/flickr
Solar

Unique ‘Smartflower’ Microgrid to Power Saskatchewan High School

June 13, 2022
154
http://midwestenergynews.com/2013/10/24/as-pipeline-concerns-mount-a-renewed-focus-on-the-great-lakes-enbridge-mackinac-line-5/
Pipelines / Rail Transport

Line 5 Closure Brings Negligible Rise in Gas Prices, Enbridge Consultant Finds

June 10, 2022
206

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Trending Stories

Keith Hirsche

Ex-Fossil Workers Convert Old Oilfields to Solar Farms After ‘Rapid Upskilling’ in Alberta

June 29, 2022
392
François GOGLINS/wikimedia commons

Corrosion Problem Shutters Half of France’s Nuclear Reactors

June 29, 2022
223
David/flickr

U.S. Supreme Court Expected to Gut Emission Controls as Climate Scientists Petition for Plan B

June 26, 2022
1.2k
Danielle Scott/flickr

Advocate Urges Ottawa to Intervene Before Ontario Builds Highway 413

June 29, 2022
128
Number 10/flickr

G7 Miss ‘Golden Opportunity’, Walk Back Pledge to Cut International Fossil Finance

June 29, 2022
142
London Eye UK England

London Becomes Biggest City to Sign Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty

June 29, 2022
120

Recent Posts

AJEL / Pixabay

Windfall Tax on Food, Fossil, Pharma Giants Would Raise $490B to Solve ‘Catastrophic’ Food Crisis: Oxfam

June 29, 2022
57
futureatlas.com/flickr

Ottawa Demands Deeper Fuel Emissions Cuts, Offers Fossils a Double-Dip on Tax Breaks

June 29, 2022
77
Province of B.C./flickr

Comox Joins Municipalities Seeking Ban on New Gas Stations

June 29, 2022
75
/Piqsels

Refocus Agriculture Spending to Cut Emissions, Boost Productivity, OECD Urges Governments

June 29, 2022
28
Jimmy Emerson, DVM/flickr

Public Vigilance Key to Protecting Greenbelts for Climate Resilience, Report Finds

June 29, 2022
35
Miguel V/Wikimedia Commons

Forests Fall Short of Full Carbon Storage Potential, Study Finds

June 29, 2022
62
Next Post
fancycrave1/Pixabay

Vermont False Alarm Notwithstanding, U.S. Grid Vulnerable: DOE

The Energy Mix

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Navigate Site

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy and Copyright
  • Cookie Policy

Follow Us

No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}