Rebecca Boyle

Highway BR-262 cuts through Brazil’s Pantanal, the world’s largest freshwater wetland. After studying the road for two decades, biologist Wagner Fischer can say with certainty that it’s one of the world’s deadliest roads for wildlife. “Ecologists are very worried,” Fischer said. “The authorities pretend to be worried.”

It may be the worst, but this jerk planet is still humanity’s best hope for another home in the cosmos.