ArticlePDF Available

Abstract

We explore the development of the Anthropocene, the current epoch in which humans and our societies have become a global geophysical force. The Anthropocene began around 1800 with the onset of industrialization, the central feature of which was the enormous expansion in the use of fossil fuels. We use atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration as a single, simple indicator to track the progression of the Anthropocene. From a preindustrial value of 270-275 ppm, atmospheric carbon dioxide had risen to about 310 ppm by 1950. Since then the human enterprise has experienced a remarkable explosion, the Great Acceleration, with significant consequences for Earth System functioning. Atmospheric CO2 concentration has risen from 310 to 380 ppm since 1950, with about half of the total rise since the preindustrial era occurring in just the last 30 years. The Great Acceleration is reaching criticality. Whatever unfolds, the next few decades will surely be a tipping point in the evolution of the Anthropocene.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
The Anthropocene: Are Humans Now Overwhelming the Great Forces of Nature?
Will Steffen; Paul J Crutzen; John R McNeill
Ambio; Dec 2007; 36, 8; Sciences Module
pg. 614
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
... The chronology as well as the impact of the Anthropocene have been subject to debate. Many ecologists suggest a formal inception that corresponds with significant human technological innovations or intensifications, such as fossil fuels beginning around 1800 ce (Steffen et al. 2007) or atomic detonations starting in the mid-twentieth century (see Barnosky et al. 2014:226;Zalasiewicz et al. 2017:207). Archaeologists have argued for much earlier starting dates, noting that the human impact on the environment can be materially demonstrated long before the fossil-fuel era. ...
Chapter
Full-text available
The exponential acceleration of the global environmental and climate crisis is becoming an imminent and dangerous existential threat to the sheer survival of humankind. The origins of this unique menacing predicament are deeply rooted in the culture developed in the cradle of European Modernity. It is a culture of utilitarianism, fuelled by an uncritical faith in the unlimited performance of technology in changing the material world. The essence of Modernity was a triumvirate—built upon the congruence between the sovereign State, the techno-science establishment, and the globalised market economy. This power-triangle commodified nature and created a pragmatic and operative fragmentary world culture that brought us to the crossroads we are now entangled in. As a result, International Law does not correctly address the prior theoretical structural problem of the existence of “global commons” that span across borders, or the intergenerational character of the concept of ‘humanity’. Global commons have always been understood only as geographical leftover territories outside political borders. Recognition of the intangible value of the ‘software’ of the Earth system and legal acknowledgement of a stable climate as a Common Heritage of Humankind will be the locus upon which an urgently needed system for management and permanent maintenance can be built, which will be essential to steer the Anthropocene wisely. This new space without enclosed territory should be the new object of global governance, and the seminal concept for a new culture of the global commons.
Article
The consequences of anthropocentric ways of thinking, designing, producing, and consuming are becoming painfully clear. Moving from this observation, several designers have become aware that design culture needs to reorient itself beyond anthropocentrism. In this article, we start with Bruno Latour’s proposal of coming “down to Earth,” which acknowledges that we are ultimately “terrestrials,” and connect it to Maria Puig de la Bellacasa’s idea of “care.” These concepts are pillars of the concrete guidelines we propose here: they are foundations for designing in a regenerative way, stepping beyond anthropocentrism. This paper traces a convergence between this emergent account of design and some recent social innovations, which are, in our opinion, making what it might mean to get down to Earth tangible. This convergence becomes particularly evident when introducing the concept of the “quality of complexity”: in other words, a qualitative dimension characteristic of those experimentations in which people re-orient their daily lives towards reweaving the web of life. While designing can strengthen its ability to be regenerative by exploring how to further engage with practices with this specific qualitative dimension, it might also provide philosophy with some concrete examples of a praxis taking further concrete steps down to Earth.
Article
Microbial activities pervasively impact the wellbeing of all organisms, including humans, and the functioning of the planet itself. In order for society to form informed opinions and take effective actions related to its welfare, it must be able to understand the causes of issues of importance and to appreciate the range of possible responses and their likely effectiveness.
Article
Full-text available
The era we now live in is termed the Anthropocene. Climate change, land use change, pesticide and insecticide use, and pollution are all contributing to pollinator loss. To ensure food crops continue to be pollinated, artificial pollinator technologies are being developed. This article asks the question: do we need artificial pollination if we have multispecies justice in the Anthropocene? Three examples of artificial pollination technologies, Edete, Olombria, and RoboBee, are provided to help address this question. However, the companies designing and developing artificial pollination technologies do not aim to address the underlying problems of pollinator decline such as habitat loss and climate change. Addressing problems such as pollinator loss with the use of digital technology puts humanity onto the course of uncertain futures. For more just futures, there are calls for a turn towards multispecies justice. Considering pollinator loss through the lens of multispecies justice puts us on an altogether different course from that of using artificial pollination. With multispecies justice there is the potential for futures which are democratic, just, diverse, and sustainable for humans and the more-than-human world.
Article
Full-text available
This essay proposes ways to extend the concept of planetary health, in the framework of major evolutionary transition applied to the planet as a whole. I argue that planetary health can be naturally extended to a fully planetary scale, including issues related to geo- bio- techno- and noo- spheres. I show the need and importance for ethics and governance to become global and I give some examples of physiological and psychological health issues from a planetary perspective.
Article
Full-text available
Will the pace of change in our global technological society continue to accelerate? Or will it follow the path of most previous technological waves, which slowed down as they matured? The purpose of this paper is to explore how historical general evolutionary processes involving increased energy flows and corresponding higher complexity levels might have contributed to the global problems we face today with regard to energy, environmental, inequality, and demographics. This situation will be compared with various integrated complexity evolutionary models of three major phases in evolution (life, humans, and civilization). While natural ecosystems seem to have both positive and negative feedback mechanisms to prevent the onset of senescence, the current economic system seems to have avoided constraints to enter a positive feedback loop that results in unsustainable resource use and pollution. There are still many contrasting interpretations of what this means for the near future, but integrating insights from these perspectives may help us better understand these processes.
Article
Full-text available
Eleven coupled climate–carbon cycle models used a common protocol to study the coupling between climate change and the carbon cycle. The models were forced by historical emissions and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Special Report on Emissions Scenarios (SRES) A2 anthropogenic emissions of CO 2 for the 1850–2100 time period. For each model, two simulations were performed in order to isolate the impact of climate change on the land and ocean carbon cycle, and therefore the climate feedback on the atmospheric CO 2 concentration growth rate. There was unanimous agreement among the models that future climate change will reduce the efficiency of the earth system to absorb the anthropogenic carbon perturbation. A larger fraction of anthropogenic CO 2 will stay airborne if climate change is accounted for. By the end of the twenty-first century, this additional CO 2 varied between 20 and 200 ppm for the two extreme models, the majority of the models lying between 50 and 100 ppm. The higher CO 2 levels led to an additional climate warming ranging between 0.1° and 1.5°C. All models simulated a negative sensitivity for both the land and the ocean carbon cycle to future climate. However, there was still a large uncertainty on the magnitude of these sensitivities. Eight models attributed most of the changes to the land, while three attributed it to the ocean. Also, a majority of the models located the reduction of land carbon uptake in the Tropics. However, the attribution of the land sensitivity to changes in net primary productivity versus changes in respiration is still subject to debate; no consensus emerged among the models.
Article
Full-text available
A high-resolution ice-core record of atmospheric CO2 concentration over the Holocene epoch shows that the global carbon cycle has not been in steady state during the past 11,000 years. Analysis of the CO2 concentration and carbon stable-isotope records, using a one-dimensional carbon-cycle model,uggests that changes in terrestrial biomass and sea surface temperature were largely responsible for the observed millennial-scale changes of atmospheric CO2 concentrations.
Article
We observe variations of about 70 ppbv around the mean pre-industrial level, which is confirmed at about 700 ppbv on a global average. According to our data, the beginning of the anthropogenic methane increase can be set between 1750 and 1800. Methane concentrations correlate only partially with proxy-data of climatic factors which influence the wetland release (the main source in pre-industrial times). A good correlation between our data and a population record from China suggests that man may already have influenced the CH4-cycle significantly before industrialisation. -from Authors
Article
Two approaches have dominated the study of Chinese industrial history. Work of the kind Professor Joseph Needham has done in his Science and Civilization in China attempts to trace the history of Chinese scientific and technological achievement from the earliest times. Recently some interesting investigations have also been made of industrialization along modern Western lines since 1800. Needham has collected valuable data about all periods but neglects the relation of technology to general economic history. From the other work we get a more or less comprehensive view of nineteenth century economic development, but this tells us nothing about an earlier era of significant growth and change. The purpose of this article is to outline the importance of iron and coal during the remarkable economic and industrial expansion which took place in the 166 years from 960 to the Jurchen conquest of North China in 1126 A.D.
Article
In 2005 the UK Government hosted the Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change conference to take an in-depth look at the scientific issues associated with climate change. This volume presents the most recent findings from the leading international scientists that attended the conference. The topics addressed include critical thresholds and key vulnerabilities of the climate system, impacts on human and natural systems, socioeconomic costs and benefits of emissions pathways, and technological options for meeting different stabilisation levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Contents are: Foreword from Prime Minister Tony Blair; Introduction from Rajendra Pachauri, Chairman of the IPCC; followed by 41 papers arranged in seven sections entitled: Key Vulnerabilities of the Climate System and Critical Thresholds; General Perspectives on Dangerous Impacts; Key Vulnerabilities for Ecosystems and Biodiversity; Socio-Economic Effects; Regional Perspectives; Emission Pathways; and Technological Options. Four papers have been abstracted separately for the Coal Abstracts database.
Article
A record of atmospheric CO2 mixing ratios from 1006 A.D. to 1978 A.D. has been produced by analyzing the air enclosed in three ice cores from Law Dome, Antarctica. The enclosed air has unparalleled age resolution and extends into recent decades, because of the high rate of snow accumulation at the ice core sites. The CO2 data overlap with the record from direct atmospheric measurements for up to 20 years. The effects of diffusion in the firn on the CO2 mixing ratio and age of the ice core air were determined by analyzing air sampled from the surface down to the bubble close-off depth. The uncertainty of the ice core CO2 mixing ratios is 1.2 ppm (1sigma). Preindustrial CO2 mixing ratios were in the range 275-284 ppm, with the lower levels during 1550-1800 A.D., probably as a result of colder global climate. Natural CO2 variations of this magnitude make it inappropriate to refer to a single preindustrial CO2 level. Major CO2 growth occurred over the industrial period except during 1935-1945 A.D. when CO2 mixing ratios stabilized or decreased slightly, probably as a result of natural variations of the carbon cycle on a decadal timescale.
Article
In view of the wide attention received by the suggestion that the rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) over the last 8000 years is anthropogenic rather than natural in origin [Ruddiman, 2003], this claim should be carefully examined. The basis for the claim is that following each of the three preceding glacial terminations, the CO2 content of the atmosphere peaked early on and then underwent a steady decline. By contrast, following the end of the last glacial period, while it also peaked early, the decline bottomed out around 8000 years ago, and since then the atmospheric CO2 content has steadily risen. By analogy with previous interglaciations, Ruddiman estimates that in the absence of human activity, the CO2 content of the atmosphere would have dropped to 240 ppm. Instead it has risen to 280 ppm. In a recent article, Ruddiman [2005] proposes that this 40 ppm human-induced rise prevented the onset of another ice age.