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Cities Will Support 5 Billion Humans by 2030, but Fewer Other Species
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장바울
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2012-10-03 05:30:52, 조회 : 2,152 |
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Cities Will Support 5 Billion Humans by 2030, but Fewer Other Species
Urban areas around the world are expanding at twice the rate of their populations, reversing historic trends toward increased density within city limits. The result will be more loss of habitat and biodiversity, warns a team of researchers in a new paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
More than 1 million square kilometers of land—largely in biodiversity “hotspots”—have a high probability of being converted to urban use by 2030, with nearly half of the expansion occurring in Asia (primarily China and India), according to the authors. However, the fastest land-to-urban conversion will occur in Africa, which will see urban land cover grow 590% above the 2000 level.
This urban expansion will encroach on or destroy habitats for 139 endangered amphibian species, 41 mammalian species, and 25 bird species, the researchers predict.
\"Given the long life and near irreversibility of infrastructure investments, it will be critical for current urbanization-related policies to consider their lasting impacts,\" says lead author Karen Seto, associate professor in the urban environment at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. \"The world will experience an unprecedented era of urban expansion and city-building over the next few decades. The associated environmental and social challenges will be enormous, but so are the opportunities\"
Source: \"Global forecasts of urban expansion to 2030 and direct impacts on biodiversity and carbon pools\" by Karen C. Seto, Burak Güneralp, and Lucy R. Hutyra. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, published ahead of print September 17, 2012, doi:10.1073/pnas.1211658109.
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