Two sea lions bulls fight it out on Enderby, on the Auckland Islands. The five subantarctic island groups are some of the most pristine places on Earth and an important breeding ground for seabirds and marine mammals, vital while nature loss is at an unprecedented level in the history of mankind. But the estimated cost was between $60-100 million over 10 years. And with the country’s borders closed to fend off the coronavirus pandemic, Department of Conservation boss Lou Sanson says he decided to put the programme on hold as revenue from international tourism dried up. Transport to the uninhabited archipelago, which lies 465 kilometres from the South Island, was complicated by charter vessels being deployed overseas and investigations into a helicopter crash at the islands in 2019.
Why No One Lives In These Uninhabited Places Shutterstock
By Sarah Crocker/Jan. 20, 2021 11:18 am EDT
Sometimes, it seems as if our species has fully colonized all of planet Earth, from one pole to another. Sure, a few spots are a little tough to live in fulltime, like Antarctica s McMurdo station or remote islands like Tristan da Cunha, but there are a brave few that live in these places anyway. What can defeat us, after all?
Turns out, quite a lot. Though the worldwide human population now stands at over 7.5 billion (as of 2019), according to the Population Reference Bureau, many of us are packed into urban and suburbans settlements. The United Nations expects that more and more humans will move into cities and towns in the future, leaving rural areas increasingly uninhabited.