The Human Reach

  ^{En Español}  

This is the first chapter in Living in the Age of Humans, a series of stories examining the planet-wide impacts of our species. You can learn more about the series in the introductory story  here .

Population density maps don't fully convey one of the most important trends in human evolution: the urbanization of our planet.

An example of rapid urban growth is São Paulo, Brazil. The red area shows the city's extent in 1905.

It had grown significantly by 1929...

...and by 1949, its population exceeded two million.

São Paulo's built-up areas had more than doubled in extent by 1964.

As of the 2010s, the city had continued to expand, albeit at a slower rate.

São Paulo's 2015 population was 21 million—it is projected to reach 23.4 million by 2030.

It's true that cities often generate massive air and water pollution, but concentrating people in urban areas can relieve pressure on natural landscapes while providing opportunities for greater energy efficiency.

Imagine what the map above would look like with another 2.7 billion people on our planet. If history is any indication, we'll expand our cities and suburbs to meet our housing needs, and extend our built networks to move even more people, goods, and ideas around the globe. Those few dark spots on land will become smaller still.

It begs the question: At what point does the human demand on Earth outpace the planet's ability to support our species and those we live alongside—or have we overextended our reach already?

The Human Reach is the first chapter in  Living in the Age of Humans , a series from Esri's StoryMaps team examining the planet-wide impacts of human activities. You can read the second chapter  here .

To fully appreciate the scope of the impacts described above, we suggest spending some time exploring each of the maps that were presented in 3D. To that end, we've created a companion atlas of interactive 2D maps.