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Mapping Global Human Activity

By Pinar Noorata on November 2, 2011

Air traffic routes between North America and Europe

It is absolutely astonishing that our world has reached a population exceeding 7 billion, as of this past Sunday. With so many people occupying our world over many centuries, and with the number steadily growing, we're all bound to have had a significant impact on the planet. Luckily, Canadian scientist Felix Pharand-Deschenes has created visuals of our planet equipped with statistical graphics to represent various human influences on this home we call Earth.

Pharand-Deschenes' Anthropocene Mapping project marks the paths of human activity including roadways, railways, airway traffic, internet cables, electricity transmission lines, and underwater data cables. He acquired all his factual information from various US government agencies. The word “Anthropocene” is especially fitting for this piece of research because of the meaning behind the ancient Greek word is derived from – anthropos means “human being” and kainos means “new, current.” It is through the combination of these two words that scientist-cartographer is best able to categorize his maps under “the new human-dominated period of the Earth's history.”

The visually stunning maps are now a piece of history. Though they are not to scale, since electrical wires can't be seen from space, there is an understanding of the immense rise in global human activity. As the founder and director of Globaia, an organization whose objective is to educate and inform the people of the world about the human race's influence on our planet, Pharand-Deschenes' maps are continuing to serve their purpose.

Air traffic routes over Eurasia