"Unspoiled lands are disappearing from the face of the Earth at an alarming pace, with about 10 percent of wilderness regions - an area double the size of Alaska - lost in the past two decades amid unrelenting human development, researchers said on Thursday.

South America, which lost 30 percent of its wilderness during that period, and Africa, which lost 14 percent, were the continents hardest hit, they said. The main driver of the global losses was destruction of wilderness for agriculture, logging and mining.

The researchers' study, published in the journal Current Biology, was the latest to document the impact of human activities on a global scale, affecting Earth's climate, landscape, oceans, natural resources and wildlife.

The researchers mapped the world's wilderness areas, excluding Antarctica, and compared the results with a 1993 map that used the same methods."

Will Dunham reports for Reuters September 8, 2016. [2]