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Shocking Maps Show How Humans Have Reshaped Earth Since 1992 (vice.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: It's no secret that humans -- noisy, messy creatures that we are -- are vastly altering Earth's environments. But it's one thing to know this in the abstract, and another to see global changes laid out in detail, as they are in comprehensive new maps published this month in the International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation. Developed by geoscientist Tomasz Stepinski and his team at the University of Cincinnati's Space Informatics Lab (SPI), the intricate visualizations reveal that 22 percent of Earth's total landmass was altered between 1992 and 2015, mostly by humans. The most common change was forest loss due to agricultural development, and the second most common was the reverse -- farms to forests. The swift urbanization of grasslands, forests, and farms was also reflected in the maps.
Stepinski and his colleagues used satellite data collected by the European Space Agency's Climate Change Initiative, which included geospatial maps of land cover designed to monitor climate change. The team broke these maps into 81-kilometer-squared tracts and created a legend of color-coded tiles based on nine broad types of transitions that occurred between 1992 and 2015 (agriculture gains in yellow, forest losses in maroon, etc). The tiles are shaded to reflect the degree of change, with the lightest shade corresponding to regions altered by less than 10 percent, and dark patches representing regions that shifted by 30 percent or more. On a broad scale, the maps emphasize the massive influence of human activity on the planet. But the project has also revealed granular details about specific locations.
Stepinski and his colleagues used satellite data collected by the European Space Agency's Climate Change Initiative, which included geospatial maps of land cover designed to monitor climate change. The team broke these maps into 81-kilometer-squared tracts and created a legend of color-coded tiles based on nine broad types of transitions that occurred between 1992 and 2015 (agriculture gains in yellow, forest losses in maroon, etc). The tiles are shaded to reflect the degree of change, with the lightest shade corresponding to regions altered by less than 10 percent, and dark patches representing regions that shifted by 30 percent or more. On a broad scale, the maps emphasize the massive influence of human activity on the planet. But the project has also revealed granular details about specific locations.
The team broke these maps into 81-kilometer-squared tracts
Being paid to stare at huge tracts of land all day? Where can I sign up?!
Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
The sick thing you're missing is that they see it as improvement - repair instead of damage.
Driving down the road with someone of that mindset I've heard comments like "why don't they mow that mess" when passing grassland and "when are they going to get those dead trees out" when passing forests containing damaged trees here and there. At the same time, every new forest area developed to commercial buildings and asphalt gets accolades for improvement.
Basically, this person cannot comprehend why we can't develop every square inch of the Earth. Anything left natural is unkempt and waste in their eyes.
You can progress without having an increased surface footprint.
If you were to upgrade US and European rail links, such that travel averaged speeds of 175-225mph, with access to every town and village, you would greatly increase mobility for more of the people.
Rail has a more neutral albedo than tarmac and can be built to superior standards.
American roads are horribly built and getting rid of the Interstates would be massively progressive.
Of course, you need cars. The X-Prize car should be the new minimum standard. 100mph at 100mpg when carrying 2 adults, 2 children and groceries.
Hey, you want progress or not? 2000s standards should be superior to 1960s ones.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)