Felix's visualisations showing how human technology has taken over our crowded
planet come just one week before the global population is set to top seven
billion. The United Nations Populations Fund has revealed that by October
31st, there will be an extra billion people on the Earth compared to 1999.
Major road and rail networks in Europe, along with transmission line and
underwater cable data, superimposed over satellite images of cities
illuminated at night
Felix used US government sources like the National Geospatial Intelligence
Agency and the National Oceanic for railways, pipelines and roads as well as
the Atmospheric Administration for the air traffic to piece together the
visualisations.
Human technology presence over North America superimposed over satellite
images of cities illuminated at night
"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. All the way to submarine cables, pipelines, shipping lanes and air
traffic. The show the extent of our civilisation, the patterns of our global
sprawl, how human-influenced our planet now is."
Human technology presence over Asia at night
Felix is the founder and director of Globaia, an organisation that seeks to
enhance awareness of the impact and role of the human race on our world. He
has spent 13 years researching and presenting his theories to students,
fellow academics and the general public. "During this time I have been
designing and presenting conferences on the global issues of our time,"
said Felix. "I believe a picture is worth a thousand words, so I slowly
started to improve my design skills to be able to show what I was explaining."
Human technology presence over Africa at night
"There is a growing number of global datasets showing the extent of our
ecological footprint," he said. "These are numbers and tables but
I decided to use these datasets and to present them in a more realistic way.
I started to gather data from numerous sources and to explore ways of
assembling them."
Road and rail networks in South America superimposed over satellite images
of cities illuminated at night
During his research Felix found that over three per cent of the world's land
surface has now been covered in tarmac. This amounts to 1.7 million square
miles and is a greater land area than the whole of India.
Human technology presence over Australasia at night
Despite the threat to nature that this rise of humanity represents, 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."
Air traffic routes over sea around North and South America
The UN Revision of World Populations study estimated that by 2050 another 2.3
billion could be added to the world population - mainly from the cities of
Asia. This increase is equal to the entire population of the world in 1950.
By the end of the 21st Century the world population could more than double
to 15.8 billion people.
Air traffic routes over Eurasia
Road and rail networks and cities illuminated at night in Europe, along with transmission lines and underwater cables
Human technology presence over North America
Picture: Felix Pharand-Deschenes / SPL/ Barcroft Media
Major road and rail networks in Africa, along with transmission line and underwater cable data
Picture: Felix Pharand-Deschenes / SPL/ Barcroft Media
Major road and rail networks in Australasia, along with transmission line and underwater cable data
Picture: Felix Pharand-Deschenes / SPL/ Barcroft Media
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