Only 3% of land areas unblemished by humans: study

Some scientists questioned the extremely low figure, saying it could be attributed to the study using a particularly narrow definition of “intact habitats”

Very little of today’s world resembles Planet Earth from 500 years ago. In fact, only about 3% of land surfaces might be ecologically intact — still home to their full range of native species and unblemished by human activity, according to new research. -- published in the journal Frontiers in Forests and Global Change — is far lower than previous estimates based on satellite images, which suggested around 20% to 40% of land ecosystems were undamaged.