There are very few places on Earth where human beings have not left our mark in one way or another.
It is estimated that 95% of the Earth’s surface – not including Antarctica, although humanity has also left its mark there – shows some signs of human activity.
According to a recent analysis, about 16% of that land has been heavily modified.
Urban development, large-scale engineering works and mining projects are completely transforming landscapes, while deforestation and agriculture are altering entire ecosystems. Pollution produced by humans can be found in almost every corner of our planet.
This interference by humans on the Earth’s surface continued apace throughout 2023, for better and worse.
Here we offer you some examples of the more drastic changes on our planet this year.
Vietnam
Just two years ago, Pearson Reef in the South China Sea was little more than a tiny atoll among more than 100 sand reefs that, seen from space, made up the spratly islands.
But Vietnam, which has occupied those islands since the late 1970s, embarked on a major project to expand its land area in late 2021.
Through a dredge and fill process, the country has added 66 hectares of land to the islands and has created a port in the middle of the reef that can be seen in a satellite image taken in August 2023.
The development of the Pearson Islands is just one of the numerous expansion projects that Vietnam has undertaken in the Spratly Islands since 2021, despite the claim of several nations such as China and the Philippines, as well as Taiwan, to the sovereignty of the islands.
According to the Asia Maritime Transparency initiative of the Center for International Strategic Studies, which monitors the area’s marine environment, in 2023 Vietnam created an additional 133 hectares of island land in five new locations in the Spratlys.
But that same organization assures that in the last decade around 2,150 hectares of coral reefs have been destroyed due to the construction of islands in the South China Sea, most of them by China.
In fact, the Asian giant has built several military bases on the new islands it has formed, including an important air base.
Argentina
With the growth in the production and sale of electric vehicles and other battery-powered devices, demand for lithium has skyrocketed in recent years.
But warnings of an imminent shortage of this critical mineral in the coming years have prompted the opening of new mines to extract it. Among those that began operating in 2023 is the Cauchari-Olaroz projectin the province of Jujuy in Argentina.
Bright green evaporation ponds are clearly visible in the Maxar Technologies satellite image. Lithium is extracted from salt from South American salt flats by converting it into a brine that is then evaporated to concentrate the lithium.
Myanmar
Changing agricultural practices have transformed the surface of the Inle lake in the Shan Mountains of eastern Myanmar.
Recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the lake is famous for the floating gardens created by the villagers who live on its shores, as well as the fishermen who paddle with their legs.
But the growth of large-scale tomato aquaculture has dramatically reduced the lake’s surface area.
Chili
High in the Andes mountain range, at about 4,400 meters above sea level, a huge scar has opened up in the ground.
It’s about the Quebrada Blanca open pit copper minewhich expanded its operations in 2023.
The companies that manage the mine hope to produce 300,000 tons of copper per year.
Ukraine
On June 6, 2023, a series of early morning explosions ruptured the Nova Kakhovka Damcausing the Dnipro River to flood and serious flooding downstream in the following days.
The Ukrainian military accused Russia of deliberately blowing up the dam, while Russia blamed the Ukrainians.
Without the levee to hold back the water, the landscape both above and below the dam was transformed in the following months.
Before the explosions, the water level of the Nova Kakhovka reservoir was the highest in recent years, but after the dam burst, it almost dried up.
That also affected a network of canals fed by the reservoir that dried up over the summer, leaving surrounding farmers struggling to irrigate their crops.
An assessment by the United Nations Environment Program described the damage as a “far-reaching environmental disaster” that would extend far beyond Ukraine’s borders.
The reservoir itself had been a fully functioning ecosystem that was decimated, while flooding downstream caused considerable damage to natural habitats. The organization warned that the damage caused by the dam failure could be “irreversible.”
Abu Dhabi
A piece of desert located 35 km from Abu Dhabi has been transformed into the largest solar energy plant in the world.
More than four million solar panels point to the sky in the Al Dhafra Solar Energy Projectcapable of generating enough electricity for almost 200,000 homes.
Ethiopia
In September 2023, Ethiopia announced that it had successfully filled its Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile.
But the news angered downstream countries, with Egypt accusing Ethiopia of threatening its water supply.
The dam, which Ethiopia wants to use to produce electricity, has been a highly controversial issue as it could also give the country’s government control over its neighbors’ water supply.
Saudi Arabia
The foundations of a part of La Líneasa city 170 km long being built in Neom, a huge territory on the western coast of Saudi Arabia, spread across the desert like a huge scar.
The construction work of the project – which Saudi Arabia has wanted to promote as a high-tech ecological city that will be the “model of tomorrow” – can be seen at one end of a highway that runs between Gayal and Ras Al Sheikh Al Hamid .
Some critics have also questioned the green credentials of the planned city.
This note was published in BBC Future. If you want to read the original text in English, access here.
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