{"id":1910872,"date":"2018-11-14T13:09:55","date_gmt":"2018-11-14T18:09:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/?p=1910872"},"modified":"2018-11-14T13:09:55","modified_gmt":"2018-11-14T18:09:55","slug":"urban-expansion-natural-habitats-1910872","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/urban-expansion-natural-habitats-1910872\/","title":{"rendered":"Massive urban expansion threatens natural habitats"},"content":{"rendered":"

City expansion has accelerated in recent decades, so much so that, by 2050, we could be creating a city the size of London every seven weeks if current trends continue, a new study warns.<\/p>\n

Urban growth presents extreme challenges to biodiversity and ecosystem services due to the ongoing loss and fragmentation of habitats, says Burak G\u00fcneralp, assistant professor of geography at Texas A&M University.<\/p>\n

“The message is clear: We have to take action and we must do it quickly. The challenges presented by urban expansion for conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem services we all depend on are only going to get more intense as the world continues to urbanize,”\u00a0G\u00fcneralp says.<\/p>\n

The findings, which appear in a Nature Conservancy<\/em> report<\/a>, show that by 2050, there will be 2.4 billion more people in cities. This means:<\/p>\n