Powerful new map depicts environmental degradation across Earth

Geographers have created a new world map showing dramatic changes in land use over the last quarter century. Researchers turned high-resolution satellite images from the European Space Agency into one of the most detailed looks so far at how people are reshaping the planet.

The digital map illustrates how 22 percent of the Earth's habitable surface has been altered in measurable ways, primarily from forest to agriculture, between 1992 and 2015. The map tells a new story everywhere you look, from wetlands losses in the American Southeast to the devastation of the Aral Sea to deforestation in the tropics and temperate rainforests.

The map of the United States shows huge losses of wetlands in the Southeast along with growing urbanization outside cities.

The map illustrates the dramatic disappearance of the Aral Sea, which dried up in the 1990s after farmers in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan diverted its tributaries for cotton fields.It is a total disaster. This is a big saltwater lake fed by two rivers. They diverted water for cotton and the sea dried up into grassland. Today, you see huge boats sitting in the middle of fields.