Anthromes (VIDEO)
Caption
This animation illustrates global land use history from 10,000 BCE to 2017 CE. New research published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) shows that land use by human societies has reshaped ecology across most of Earth's land for at least 12,000 years. The research team, from more than a dozen institutions around the world, compared the history of global land use with current patterns of biodiversity and conservation. Their work revealed that the main cause of the current biodiversity crisis is not human destruction of uninhabited wildlands, but rather the appropriation, colonization, and intensified use of lands previously managed sustainably.
Credit
Erle Ellis, Professor of Geography and Environmental Systems at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC)
Usage Restrictions
Please request permission to use this video at ece@umbc.edu.
License
Licensed content