A visualisation of how human development is distorting the planet (Chatham House)

This map shows the global connections which characterize the world of the Anthropocene, the period when human activity has been the dominant influence on the environment. In this view of the world, the most highly populated areas get the most space, reducing the sparsely populated such as central Australia to insignificance. The built-up areas are shown by the strength of the light pollution produced by cities, which are connected by shipping routes (white/blue over sea), roads (green), railway lines (orange), pipelines (red) and submarine cables (yellow over sea).

Benjamin Hennig, an Oxford University geographer who created the map, says: ‘For  a large part of the world’s population the planet is far less a global village than a one-way street that channels their resources to the spaces that are the real worlds of the Anthropocene’.