So say the authors of a new study from Cambridge University (Britain). In their opinion, only three percent of the planet’s surface has not been subjected to the destructive human activity.
The British researchers have new evidence of how destructive the human activity of mankind on the environment is.
Previously, other researchers reported that the planet was 5 percent, and before that – 19 and even 40 percent of ecosystems untouched by humans. Now only three percent are left.
The fact is that human invasion of a certain territory is always accompanied by the extinction of one or two species. This, in turn, sets off a chain of disastrous changes.
At the moment, only 3 percent of terrestrial ecosystems have preserved their species diversity and are able to support full species life. We are talking about several areas of the Amazon and Congo rainforests, the forests and tundra of eastern Siberia and northern Canada, and the Sahara Desert.
Researchers have mapped the original habitats of species that have disappeared from the face of the Earth. As well as those areas where reduced populations of species remain that have difficulty maintaining healthy ecosystems.
According to scientists from Cambridge, it is necessary to return key fauna species to their natural habitat to arrange a “restart” of ecosystems. And thus restore populations.
However, not everyone agrees with this way out of the situation. Some experts believe that the researchers in this case did not take into account the most important factor affecting the functioning of ecosystems: global warming.
