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Environment

More than half of life on Earth experiencing unprecedented conditions

An analysis of changes to global ecosystems has revealed that almost nowhere is untouched by the influence of humanity, with more than 50 per cent of the planet's land mass experiencing "novel" conditions

By Madeleine Cuff

14 March 2025

The Amazon rainforest is being transformed by human influence

Lynsey Addario/Getty Images

There is almost no ecosystem on Earth left untouched by human activity, according to new research that suggests widespread change from pollution, wildlife extinctions and disruption to plant life is pushing the planet into uncharted territory.

“We have shifted the system to conditions that we have not seen before,” says at Aarhus University in Denmark.

Ordonez and his colleagues have mapped the land’s exposure to three key drivers of ecosystem “novelty”…

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