The BBC More or Less podcast did an investigation on this and found no actual evidence for the claim. It seems to be based on a study on roundabouts in one town in england and then people just assumed that all world soil was suffering the same rough treatment...<p>This piece is just a reprint of a speech made by a UN official. No science quoted.<p><a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p08dx986" rel="nofollow">https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p08dx986</a>