Half of the Earth is still free from human impact, but it’s not all good news
Deserts are some of the least touched biomes (Pixabay/)The idea of reserving half of the Earth for nature has been gaining traction among conservationists in recent years. Organizations like Nature Needs Half are pushing to protect 50 percent of the planet’s lands by 2030, saying it’s necessary to preserve biodiversity.That enormous area may seem impossible given all we’ve done to the planet, but a new analysis of global human impacts published in the journal Global Change Biology says there are still large amounts of land available for conservation—perhaps even enough to meet bold conservation goals. “We still have quite a bit of the planet that has fairly low human impacts,” says Jason Riggio, a conservation biologist at the University of California, Davis and lead author of the new study. “These ambitious targets are potentially within reach.”Ecologists have produced a number of maps that include spatial data on various human impacts,...