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.

The paper, published June 3 in the prestigious journal Science , has 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. It is essentially a conservation plan for the planet, and we must implement it quickly. The research team used advanced geospatial algorithms to map the optimal areas for conserving terrestrial species and ecosystems across the world. It further used spatially explicit land-use scenarios to quantify the land at risk from human activities by

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? How much land does it take to support a human being? Boundaries of China superimposed upon those of the USA. Let's do the math again, but this time for the entire planet.

Sorry what I meant to say is that your text was plagiarized by Rithwik. Volcanos probably have a greater impact despite the infrequency of catastrophic eruptions — they shut down travel and pollute the ocean and harm humans.

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.

Charts Agricultural area over the long-term Agricultural land per capita Agricultural land use Agricultural land use per person Arable land needed to produce a fixed quantity of crops Arable land use per person Area of land needed to meet global vegetable oil demand Change in cereal production, yield, land use and population Contribution to global mean surface temperature rise from agriculture and land use Coverage of wetlands Cropland and pasture per person Cropland area Cropland extent over the long-term Cropland per person over the long-term Dietary land use vs. GDP per capita Extent of extensive agriculture Extent of foraging, hunting and gathering Extent of intensive agriculture Extent of pastoralism FAO projections of arable land Global agricultural land use by major crop type Global cropland is still increasing Global land spared as a result of cereal yield improvements Global land use since 10, BCE Grazing land use over the long-term Has the world passed peak agricultural land? How much cropland has the world spared due to increases in crop yields? How much global land is used as pasture for livestock? Is agricultural land expanding? Change over the prior decade Land area in hectares Land area in square kilometres Land area per crop type Land use Land use for palm oil production Land use for vegetable oil crops Land use of foods per kilocalories Land use over the long-term Land use per grams of protein Land use per kilogram of food product Land use vs.

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.

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This figure gives us an estimate of roughly , km 2 of human-covered land worldwide. 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. Leave a Reply Cancel reply Your email address will not be published. Landcover is one key way that we can measure how much of the terrestrial environment has been covered by humans. 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. Ecosystems which still remain relatively untouched by humans provide a number of beneficial services to mankind such as supplying clean water and providing natural flood control as well as being able to protect against some of the impacts of climate change. The paper, published June 3 in the prestigious journal Science , has key policy implications for nations negotiating new conservation targets for under the umbrella of the United Nations. But the study suggests that additional areas will require conservation through appropriate land-use policies. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn. Science subscribers can access the paper here. Over half-way to this prediction, where are we now? I kept in my mind this. Keep freshly informed. Learn how your comment data is processed.

The focus of this topic page is land use for agriculture. But we are also studying other uses of land, including land required for human settlement. Agriculture is a major use of land.

This includes the land occupied by cities, towns, and commercial enterprises. Learn how your comment data is processed. Twitter 0. This figure gives us an estimate of roughly , km 2 of human-covered land worldwide. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. If we include this to our estimate of global human cover — we get a rather more sobering estimate of 19 million km 2. Bottom Line: For everyone presently on this planet to enjoy the lifestyle of an average American, we would need about ten planet Earths. These ecosystem services are also therefore crucial for improving overall human wellbeing. So, like it or not, we humans are insignificant in the real workings of the earth, but we are an egocentric species, who overstate our importance. The meta-analysis found that the largest rates of increase in urban landcover were seen in India, China and Africa, while North America experienced the largest total change since This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. Humans have occupied almost all of Earth's habitable lands. It further used spatially explicit land-use scenarios to quantify the land at risk from human activities by