New roads can be treacherous — even fatal — for wildlife, native forests, and the global environment.
If you don’t believe this, just watch this two-minute video, “Why Roads Are So Dangerous”
New roads can also be surprisingly risky for human economies and societies, as shown in this brief video, “Why Roads are Like Pandora’s Box”.
Roads are neither entirely good nor bad: they are a double-edged sword, and it’s essential to see both sides of the blade.
Other languages
These videos are vital for a global audience. For this reason, we have produced the first video in eight different languages:
English: Why roads are so dangerous
French: Pourquoi les routes sont-elles si dangereuses?
Spanish: Por qué las carreteras son tan peligrosas
Portuguese: Porque razão as estradas são tão perigosas
Bahasa Indonesia: Mengapa jalanan sangat berbahaya
Bahasa Malaysia: Bahaya dan kesan negatif jalan raya
Papua New Guinea Pidgin: Bilong wonem na rot i nogut
Mandarin (Chinese): 为什么公路那么危险
Please share these videos, especially with colleagues in developing nations — which are the epicentres of road building.
Roads change everything—economies, societies, politics, nature. We urgently need better approaches to reduce the damage and increase the benefits from explosive road expansion.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
William Laurance is a Distinguished Research Professor and Australian Laureate at James Cook University in Cairns, Australia. A tropical environmental scientist, he has written eight books and over 600 scientific and popular articles. He is a fellow of the Australian Academy of Science and has received many professional honors, including the Heineken Environment Prize, BBVA Frontiers in Conservation Biology Award, the Society for Conservation Biology’s Distinguished Service Award, and the Zoological Society of London’s Outstanding Conservation Achievement Award. He is director of the Centre for Tropical Environmental and Sustainability Science at James Cook University, and founded and directs ALERT — the Alliance of Leading Environmental Researchers & Thinkers — a science-advocacy group that reaches up to 500,000 readers weekly. He is a four-time winner of Australia’s Best Science Writing Prize.
