The global road-building explosion is shattering nature

Road making is man's biggest threat to nature.

If you asked a friend to name the worst human threat to nature, what would they say? Global warming? Overhunting? Habitat fragmentation?

A new study suggests it is in fact road-building.

“Road-building” might sound innocuous, like “house maintenance” – or even positive, conjuring images of promoting economic growth. Many of us have been trained to think so.

But an unprecedented spate of road building is happening now, with around 25 million kilometres of new paved roads expected by 2050. And that’s causing many environmental researchers to perceive roads about as positively as a butterfly might see a spider web that’s just fatally trapped it.

Read the piece on The Conversation by a distinguished research professor and Australian Laureate at the James Cook University, Bill Laurance - “The global road-building explosion is shattering nature.”