http://www.pakalertpress.com/2012/04/26/how-humans-have-transformed-earth-incredible-video-illuminates-every-road-shipping-route-and-flight-path/
Date: 2012-04-26
Illuminating: Anthropocene is a three-minute rollercoaster ride through the latest chapter in the story of how one species has transformed a planet
Global map showing major road and rail networks over land, along with transmission line and underwater cable data superimposed over satellite images of cities illuminated at night
The U.S as you’ve never seen it before: The States is lit up in the video showing thousands of ways of getting from A to B
The video literally highlights the stark contrast between the infrastructures of Europe and north Africa
Air traffic routes over Eurasia – just one of the technologies Felix Pharand Deschenes has mapped over a night-time view of our planet
The article is reproduced in accordance with Section 107 of title 17 of the Copyright Law of the United States relating to fair-use and is for the purposes of criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.
Date: 2012-04-26
From space Earth looks completely untouched. However, it’s deceptive, as a new video shows in mesmerising fashion.
‘Anthropocene’ demonstrates just how much the planet has been transformed by humans by illuminating every road, shipping route and flight path.
Illuminating: Anthropocene is a three-minute rollercoaster ride through the latest chapter in the story of how one species has transformed a planet
Global map showing major road and rail networks over land, along with transmission line and underwater cable data superimposed over satellite images of cities illuminated at night
Human technology presence over Africa at night. Road, rail and data
transmission lines are highlighted on the map – along with the undersea
data cables that connect continents
The three-minute clip is the result of 13 years of devotion by Canadian anthropologist Felix Pharand.
Using an ordinary home PC, Pharand input data from agencies such as the Geospatial Intelligence Agency
and Atmospheric Administration to create accurate illustrations of how
humans have ‘domesticated’ our planet – superimposing the data on images
of the earth’s cities lit up at night.
Pharand claims three per cent of the planet’s land surface is under tarmac – an area the size of India.
Recently, the United Nations Populations Fund revealed that by October 31, there will be an extra billion people on the Earth compared to 1999.
The U.S as you’ve never seen it before: The States is lit up in the video showing thousands of ways of getting from A to B
The video literally highlights the stark contrast between the infrastructures of Europe and north Africa
According to the UN it has been estimated of all the humans ever born, over six per cent, are walking the Earth today.
‘These pictures show several sides
of global human activities,’ said 34-year-old Felix, from Montreal,
Canada. ‘We see everything from paved and unpaved roads, light
pollution, railways, electricity transmission lines.’
‘It shows the extent of our civilisation, the patterns of our global sprawl, how human-influenced our planet now is.’
Air traffic routes across North America and Europe – showing the ‘hubs’ that connect the world, such as London’s Heathrow, JFK in New York and Frankfurt
Air traffic routes over Eurasia – just one of the technologies Felix Pharand Deschenes has mapped over a night-time view of our planet
Felix taught himself design to
communicate his ideas more effectively – and wanted to create the sort
of visions of planets seen in sci-fi movies, but using real data from
our world.
‘I thought there would be huge
strengths associated with global pictures depicting how far we’ve been
at colonising, domesticating and transforming our home planet. I started
to gather data from numerous sources and to explore ways of assembling
them. We’ve seen similar pictures in movies like Star Wars,
Contact, Avatar and the likes but I have never seen realistic
renderings for our Earth. So I thought – why not try to make some?
Felix is positive about the legacy
of our species. ‘Today’s global civilisation is the work of billions of
people throughout history,’ he said, ‘It has been established through
much effort, successes and sufferings – as well as wars, inventions,
exchanges, crisis and socio-technological changes. The world at the
start of the 21st Century
is also the result of what we call the Great Acceleration – the most
rapid transformation of the human relationship with the natural world in
history.
‘Many human activities reached
take-off points sometime in the mid-20th Century and sharply accelerated
towards the end of the century. These shots are a tool to raise
awareness – I think we have a duty to remain optimistic in our hearts,’
says Pharand, a director of environmental group Globaia.
By the end of the 21st century the world population could more than double to 15.8 billion people.
The article is reproduced in accordance with Section 107 of title 17 of the Copyright Law of the United States relating to fair-use and is for the purposes of criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.
No comments:
Post a Comment