Holocene is the name given to the last 11,700 years, the time since the end of last major glacial epoch or The ice age. The Anthropocene is the proposed current geological epoch. A time when humans exert significant influence over the earth’s bio-geologic system. The global human population has grown from 1 billion in 1800 to 7.8 billion in 2020. It is still growing by around 83 million people annually. The UN projects that without action to slow population growth, global population will reach between 9.4 to 10.1 billion in 2050.
Millions of people live in the Arctic, but Antarctica has no permanent inhabitants. But even the relatively untouched expanse of Antarctica has not been immune to the effects of climate change. And the Arctic, in addition to climate change, has suffered from pollution, development by the oil and gas industry, and overfishing.
Above anecdote reflects one of the devastation caused by Anthropocene. This essay further talks succinctly about Anthropocene effects on nature.
Obliteration of Nature
Nature was full of life when humans first started to build settlements with it 10,000 years ago, now humans life has changed all of it, stability of nature can no longer be taken for granted. Wildlife has reduced to 60 percent, never has it been important to fathom how the natural world works. Animals in Grasslands migrate over hundred miles for food, following the trails of regular rains. Every year nearly 2 billion tons of dust goes to the sky and quarter of it falls on ocean, which provides a rich nutrients to microorganisms in ocean which attracts small fishes, dolphins and nearly 5 million sea birds reach there to prey on them. Amazon basin is over 3000km across, which has a complex food chain structure, is home to half of our planet’s remaining rain forest. Polar extremes, Arctic and Antarctica maintains the stability of earth, Greenland is full of frozen ice which reflects sunlight and maintains earth’s temperature.
Spacious grasslands, a resilient forest, diverse jungles, flow of fresh waters, frozen worlds everything has been disrupted. 6 million tons of bush meat are taken from amazon every year which has halved the population of gorilla, in Philippines 90 percent of rainforest is lost, jungle of Borneo which exists from 130 million years has lost half of its jungle, Global temperature has increased 1.0°C since 1800,due to this every 20 minutes 75 million tons of ice breaks at poles which erupts colossal ocean currents which disrupts habitats in ocean and adjacent nature. Only 28 percent of oxygen is provided by land and rest is provided by oceans, that is every 3rd breath we take comes from ocean. Since 1970 we have lost nearly 70 percent terrestrial wildlife, 90 percent large fish in ocean, 70 percent of wild birds. 96 percent of mammals on land is humans and livestock (I sometimes wonder there will be just billion cows and billion people looking at each other in future).
The effects of all these on us is breath gasping. Threats of viral infections like EBOLA and HIV, Poverty, Scarcity of natural resources, Atmospheric air and etc.
UN currently projects that we need 70% more food by 2050, habitat loss and exploitation are two significant to biodiversity, 80% threat to mammals and birds are due to agriculture. By 2050, 5 billion people will live in water. Researches show that The Anthropocene could become the world sixth mass extinction! (Most recent was 65 million years ago and all five occurred naturally) and this would be solely because of humans. If we manage to undergo the critical transitions necessary, the reward will be immense. Addressing social inequality and environmental degradation will require a global paradigm shift toward living within planetary boundaries. Sustainability and resilience will be achieved much faster if the majority of the earth’s population understand the value and needs of our increasingly fragile earth.
Our planet has its own way of balancing life. The best example is the epicenter of man-made nuclear power plant disaster, The Chernobyl. Researchers have found that the so called Chernobyl Exclusion Zone which covers 2,800 square km of north Ukraine untouched from humans since 3 decades, now represents the third largest nature reserve in mainland Europe. It has become a HAVEN for wildlife, with lynx, bison, deer and other animals roaming around thick forests.
“If you want to change the world, start with yourself -MAHATHMA GANDHI”. The world needs change and it needs now. It’s time to “restore the defaults”.
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