Planet Earth has run out of virgin landscapes and mankind is responsible for it. This is the main conclusion of the latest comprehensive review carried out by the Max Plack Institute for the Science of Human History (Germany) and researcher Nicole Boivin from the University of Oxford (UK) which has analyzed archaeological data from the last 30 years. The study shows an indisputable human mark over the years on the distribution of species and the evolution of landscapes in the world.
Based on DNA, stable isotopes, microfossils and new computational techniques, scientists have identified four key phases in which the influence of humans has been crucial on our planet and that has destroyed any sign of the landscape that we call “virgin”:
Expansion of man during the late Pleistocene
The increase in population and expansion to all corners of Eurasia, Australia and America were accompanied by a consequent extinction of a great variety of species, especially large beasts , causing a significant effect on the structure of the ecosystem in general.
Agriculture in the Neolithic
The domestication of sheep, goats, and cows, and later birds, such as chickens, jeopardized the evolution of many plants and animals. Over time, chickens, for example, already outnumber people by more than three to one globally , according to the report.
Island colonization
Human colonization imposes a landscape transported with new species, fire, deforestation, as well as threats to predatory animals and indigenous birds. A new tear in the ecosystem.
Urbanized companies and commerce
The development of commerce from the Bronze Age onwards represents another important link in the loss of unspoiled landscapes. The indigenous forests of the Middle East, for example, became cultivated fields for grapes, figs or olives, with a loss of virgin land of around 80-85% already 3,000 years ago.
The study has been published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
