About half of Earth's ice-free land remains unaltered by humans and can still be protected with swift conservation measures, a new study shows. US researchers compared four recent global maps showing the conversion of natural lands to 'anthropogenic land' – land that has been exploited by humans. But researchers say humans have the opportunity to conserve about half of Earth’s land for good, rather than exploiting its natural resources. ‘Full’ indicates all four datasets are in full agreement and all identify that cell as low human influence, while ‘none’ indicates zero of the datasets identify that cell as low human influence. However, it had remained unclear how much of Earth's land area remains without significant human influence and where this land is located – something this new study set out to clarify.

Source: Daily Mail June 15, 2020 11:00 UTC