The Human Impact on the Earth's Surface
There is no agnosticism that human activity has changed the planet, but to what extent? As it turns out, approximately 95 percent of the planets' surface is experiencing some form of transformation, with 85 percent having signs of multiple types of human influence. The map below by data scientist Hannah Ker describes humanity's transformation of terrestrial land ecosystems. The map is based on the Global Human Modification of Terrestrial Systems data, which traces the physical extent of thirteen anthropogenic stressors across 5 categories. Human settlement: population density, built‐up areas Agriculture: cropland, livestock Transportation: major roads, minor roads, two tracks, railroads Mining and energy production: mining, oil wells, wind turbines Electrical infrastructure: powerlines, nighttime lights The researcher gathered all these factors and scaled their impact from 0 to 1. Then, he mapped these effects. The land's surface was organized into cells of one square
