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Researchers Find Roads Shatter the Earth's Surface Into 600,000 Fragments (phys.org)
An international team of conservation scientists have released a new global map of roadless areas that shows that the Earth's surface is shattered by roads into more than 600,000 fragments. While roads allow humans to travel to nearly every region in the world, they severely reduce the ability of ecosystems to function effectively. Phys.Org reports: Recent research carried out by an international team of conservation scientists and published in the journal Science used a dataset of 36 million kilometers of roads across the landscapes of the earth. They are dividing them into more than 600,000 pieces that are not directly affected by roads. Of these remaining roadless areas only 7 percent are larger than 100 km2. The largest tracts are to be found in the tundra and the boreal forests of North America and Eurasia, as well as some tropical areas of Africa, South America and Southeast Asia. Only 9 percent of these areas undisturbed by roads are protected. Roads introduce many problems to nature. For instance, they interrupt gene flow in animal populations, facilitate the spread of pests and diseases, and increase soil erosion and the contamination of rivers and wetlands. Then there is the free movement of people made possible by road development in previously remote areas, which has opened these areas up to severe problems such as illegal logging, poaching and deforestation. Most importantly, roads trigger the construction of further roads and the subsequent conversion of natural landscapes, a phenomenon the study labels "contagious development."
... completely ignoring the fact that people need the environment to survive. We need air, plants/animals and water. They don't need us.
"Ecosystems span roads no problem." Naive.
http://journals.plos.org/ploso...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
http://www.safepassagecoalitio...
Where are we going and why are we in a handbasket?
Yes, you are.
Said like someone who lives in a city, probably an apartment, and knows jack shit about actual ecosystems, but feels because they drink soy latte, and own a bike, they are a gaian dream.
Hint: generally, ecosystems span roads more easily than roads span ecosystems.
In fact roads are one of the easiest constructs for them to span. malls, stadiums, towns, cities - all much much worse.
Roads result in a bit of roadkill - probably less than the many MANY others causes of death in the wild.
Roads with chainlink side fences are a bit more problematical, but not many countries are that 'special'
Roads introduce many problems to nature. For instance, they interrupt gene flow in animal populations, facilitate the spread of pests and diseases, and increase soil erosion and the contamination of rivers and wetlands. Then there is the free movement of people made possible by road development in previously remote areas, which has opened these areas up to severe problems such as illegal logging, poaching and deforestation. Most importantly, roads trigger the construction of further roads and the subsequent conversion of natural landscapes, a phenomenon the study labels "contagious development."
Do you really not understand how this is left-wing environmentalist misanthropism? If not, I recommend reading it again, paying special attention to the part about "Roads introduce many problems to nature" and where it compares roads to a disease with "contagious development". Seriously, I do not understand how you are pretending to miss the clear meaning here. You know, people would take environmentalists a lot better if you people weren't so full of hate for the rest of us all the time.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
> but have no effect on ecosystems other than to limit the spread of wildfires
This claim is not well founded, I'm afraid. Even the most casual look at Google shows thousands of well written articles on the difficulty, and many well researched scientific papers on obvious and subtle effects. Slower moving animals like snakes and turtles are devastated by roads, and can lose genetic diversity because they can't safely cross roads to cross breed with even nearby habitats. And animals that need to migrate due to winter or due to local food depletion often have profound difficulty finding safe and effective ways past piles of fenced in highway.