Anthropocene

The Anthropocene epoch that isn’t – what the decision not to label a new geological epoch means for Earth’s future

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금요일, 4월 5, 2024

Holocene, Environment, Geology, Acceleration, Travel, Climate, Social media, RSS, University, Anthropocene, Human, Music, Geography, The Conversation, Nobel

Then in March, an international panel of scientists formally rejected the proposal for a new Anthropocene epoch.

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Then in March, an international panel of scientists formally rejected the proposal for a new Anthropocene epoch.
He says the change has been “extraordinarily rapid”, particularly since the mid-20th century, a time known as the great acceleration.
An Anthropocene Working Group was established in 2009 to explore whether the Anthropocene should be declared an official geological epoch, different to the Holocene, which began around 11,700 years ago.
A new epoch would mean that a distinct change could be seen in the fossil record with geological strata distinctive from those below and above it.

Why now is the time to address humanity’s impact on the moon

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월요일, 2월 5, 2024

Every human civilization has looked to the stars and used celestial movements to measure time and find meaning.

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Every human civilization has looked to the stars and used celestial movements to measure time and find meaning.
This insatiable thirst for knowledge combined with technological advancements have made it possible for us to dream of travelling in space.
Six decades later, plans are ramping up for space tourism, missions to the moon and Mars, and mining on the moon.

The dawn of the Anthropocene

There is a movement among the international geologic scientific community calling for a new epoch — the Anthropocene — reflecting the enormous extent to which human activity has altered the planet since the end of the Second World War.
According to their research, the starting point for the Anthropocene has been identified as beginning in the 1950s, and the fallout from nuclear testing.
The case for a lunar Anthropocene is interesting.

Damaging the Earth

For humanities researchers and artists, the importance of the Anthropocene lies in the power the concept has to evoke human responsibility for bringing the Earth’s system to a tipping point.
For millenia, most societies understood the importance of their relationship with the natural world for survival.
Read more:
'Killing' trees: How true environmental protection requires a revolution in how we talk about, and with, our forests

A lunar Anthropocene

And now the Anthropocene, this age of human impact, is also arriving on the moon.
An increasing number of moon missions and extracting resources from the moon could destroy lunar environments.
If the intent is to issue a word of caution and pre-emptively shock and elicit a feeling of responsibility on the part of those actors likely to impact the moon’s surface, it may very well be the right time to name a lunar Anthropocene.

Christine Daigle receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. Liette Vasseur receives funding from the Exploration New Frontiers Research Funds. Jennifer Ellen Good does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

How industrial agriculture is disturbing the nitrogen cycle and undermining conditions for life on Earth

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수요일, 1월 3, 2024

Six of our nine planetary boundaries have now been crossed – and industrial agriculture are the main culprit.

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Six of our nine planetary boundaries have now been crossed – and industrial agriculture are the main culprit.
This notion of overstepping boundaries is clear in regard to the best-known limit of them all: that of climate change.

Yet in the case of the planetary boundary for nitrogen, exceeding the threshold is different, as it is the industrialisation of agriculture that is largely, and more complexly, responsible for breaking the limit.
But how can agriculture affect the nitrogen cycle?

The natural nitrogen cycle

First, we need to understand the natural cycle of carbon and nitrogen – two of the main elements that form living matter.
So, the boundaries of the nitrogen cycle have to remain local: any loss of nitrogen brings about a risk of soil depletion, which jeopardises continued plant growth.

The amount of nitrogen that is lost in the atmosphere and in groundwater is therefore considerable, and this loss makes nitrogen the main limiting factor in plant growth.
They do so through a symbiotic association with bacteria that have enzymes needed to convert molecular nitrogen into proteins.
It is this symbiotic fixation that offsets the natural environmental loss of nitrogen and ensures that terrestrial ecosystems function perennially.

Farming and fertilisation

Each time plants are harvested, the nitrogen contained in them is carried far away from the plot of soil where it came from.
That is the purpose of fertilisation.
There are many methods of fertilisation.
Indeed, this method was the basis of traditional systems of polyculture and livestock farming.
They quickly made traditional polyculture and livestock farming obsolete and paved the way to intensified and specialised agriculture, which was henceforth coupled with the heavy chemical industry.

Environmental nitrogen loss

In this accelerated flow of nitrogen, what causes trouble is the environmental nitrogen loss that results from it.
Indeed, the more nitrogenous fertilisers are used to increase crop yields, the less the added nitrogen is effective and the greater the losses through leaching and volatilisation.
What we call the nitrogen surplus is the excess of nitrogen put into the soil in relation to the quantity actually taken away through harvesting.

Feeding the world without ruining it

But can we reasonably scale down intensive farming without jeopardising the food security of a world that will have 10 billion mouths to feed by 2050?
Yet we can only do so if three major structural changes are made to the entire agrifood system at the same time as intensive agriculture is toned down.
On the contrary, this model of agriculture has now been clearly identified as a factor that disturbs the Earth’s system profoundly.
AFP and The Conversation France have maintained their editorial independence at every stage of the project.

Gilles Billen ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.

New research harnesses AI and satellite imagery to reveal the expanding footprint of human activity at sea

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수요일, 1월 3, 2024

More than 25 percent of transport and energy vessel activity are also missing from public tracking systems.

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More than 25 percent of transport and energy vessel activity are also missing from public tracking systems.
Using machine learning, they then concluded which of those vessels were likely engaged in fishing activity.
Global Fishing Watch is an international nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing ocean governance through increased transparency of human activity at sea.
We believe human activity at sea should be public knowledge in order to safeguard the global ocean for the common good of all.

Mark Cuban & Anthropocene Ventures Back Climate-Tech Startup, Kind Designs

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금요일, 11월 17, 2023

Renowned entrepreneur and investor Mark Cuban, alongside early stage climate tech VC firm Anthropocene Ventures , has joined Kind Designs’ seed round.

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Renowned entrepreneur and investor Mark Cuban, alongside early stage climate tech VC firm Anthropocene Ventures , has joined Kind Designs’ seed round.
View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231117385833/en/
Founder and CEO, Anya Freeman, with robot and team at Kind Designs' warehouse in Miami, FL.
Mark Cuban and Anthropocene Ventures join an impressive list of supporters within Kind Design’s $5M seed round.
For more information on Kind Designs and to get an estimate for your commercial or residential seawall project, visit www.kinddesigns.com .

Have we reached the end of nature? Our relationship with the environment is in crisis

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수요일, 10월 18, 2023

Has Nature, framed as being separate to humanity, lost its relevance?

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Has Nature, framed as being separate to humanity, lost its relevance?
Through our overwhelming influence on the atmosphere, hydrosphere and biosphere, no ecosystem anywhere is sheltered from our influence.
As some of these forces of change combine, ecosystems are being pushed past tipping points of collapse at a faster rate.

The crises of the Anthropocene

As a result of the Anthropocene — this period of time when human activity is enormously impacting the planet — global biodiversity is in crisis, with species extinction occurring at 1,000 times the pre-human rate.
The Half-Earth project contends that only by preserving 50 per cent of global surface habitat will we preserve 85 per cent of species.

Supporting biodiversity

We are recognizing, however, that biodiversity can also be supported everywhere and in everything we do.
Urban landscapes can support greater biodiversity such as of pollinators and farmed landscapes can contribute depending on the intensity of farming.

Relationships with nature

For the rest of us present, “man” had been overrepresented when speaking of community.
For essayist and philosopher Sylvia Wynter, the invention and overrepresentation of Man (a category that emerged from European rational thought) as distinct from nature, is the underpinning concept that enabled its history of colonialism and racism.
Have we reached the end of nature in its traditional meaning as distinct from us?
Reframing our relationship with nature is an important step to deepen our commitment to addressing these human-made environmental crises.

Our planet is burning in unexpected ways - here’s how we can protect people and nature

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토요일, 9월 16, 2023

Yet human activities in the current era, sometimes called the “Anthropocene”, are reshaping patterns of fire across the planet.

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Yet human activities in the current era, sometimes called the “Anthropocene”, are reshaping patterns of fire across the planet.
In our new research, published in the Annual Review of Environment and Resources, we used satellite data to create global maps of where and how fires are burning.
Our international team found strong evidence fires are burning in unexpected places, at unusual times and in rarely observed ways.

Here’s how fire patterns are changing

Satellite data provide evidence of changes in fire patterns at a global scale.
An increase in fire size and the frequency of large fires has recently been observed in forests and woodlands of the western United States.
In Australia, satellite records show the frequency of very large forest fires has increased over the past four decades.

Changes in fire affect air, land and water

Changes in fire patterns are modifying water cycles, too.
In the western United States, fires are reaching higher elevations and having strong impacts on snow and water availability.
New studies are revealing how the air, land and water that support life on Earth are connected by fires.

Humans are responsible for the changes

A pattern of extreme fire weather outside of natural climate variation is already emerging in North America, southern Europe and the Amazon basin.
Humans modify fire regimes by changing land use for agricultural, forestry and urban purposes.
Humans have transported plants and animals across the globe, resulting in novel mixes of species that modify fuels and fire regimes.

Using knowledge and practice of fire to achieve sustainability goals

David Bowman receives funding from the Australian Research Council, Natural Hazards Research Australia, and NSW Department of Planning and Environment.
Grant Williamson receives funding from the Australian Research Council, Natural Hazards Research Australia, and NSW Department of Planning and Environment.

How analyzing ancient and modern polar bear samples reveals the full scope of global warming

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금요일, 9월 1, 2023

These are objectively true statements that most people have come to accept.

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These are objectively true statements that most people have come to accept.
But it is also true that Earth’s climate has never been stagnant and climate anomalies have been frequent throughout the past.
Are the impacts of modern climate change comparable to those of the medieval warm period (MWP) or the little ice age (LIA)?

Ecosystem background

Predators at the top of the food chain, like polar bears, reflect changes across the entire ecosystem, all the way down to microscopic algae.
In the Arctic, the base of the food web is sourced from two categories: sea ice-associated algae and open-water phytoplankton, which are distinguishable through their carbon isotopes.

Results from our study

In our study we examined stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes in polar bear bone collagen.
The polar bears were all from the Lancaster Sound sub-population and spanned the last 4,000 years.

What it all means

The results of the nitrogen isotopes showed that throughout time, 4,000 years BP to the present, the structure of the Lancaster Sound food web was relatively unchanged.
Polar bears eat seals, seals eat cod, cod eat zooplankton, et cetera.
There were no surprising shifts in the diets of polar bears despite past and present climate change.

Evidence of a warming climate

For ringed seals, the primary prey of polar bears, it is a platform for denning and raising young.
In this case, we have illustrated the magnitude of difference occurring in the modern Arctic, relative to past climate anomalies.
We can, therefore, not dismiss calls to action on climate change on the basis that the climate has always fluctuated.

Plastic rocks, plutonium, and chicken bones: the markers we're laying down in deep time

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월요일, 8월 7, 2023

Not on our human-scale time, but deep time: the almost unimaginable span of billions of years which have already come and gone.

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Not on our human-scale time, but deep time: the almost unimaginable span of billions of years which have already come and gone.
Let’s say you’re in the far future and you’re looking for evidence of previous civilisations.
Here are five of the markers we’re leaving for the future.

What markers are we laying down in rock?

Everyone is familiar with periods such as the Jurassic.
Usually, a change in the global environment so large it leaves permanent evidence visible in the rock layers.
So to declare that we’re in a new geological epoch – and that we’ve left the balmy post-ice age Holocene behind – requires finding evidence of unmistakably clear markers.

1. Plastics and plastic rocks

Finding plastics in a sediment or rock layer is a clear sign that the layer dates from modern times.
There are also plastiglomerates, the mutant offspring of plastics and rock.

2. Concrete

3. Chicken bones

Humans like chicken.
As of 2018, we were eating about 65 billion of these birds a year.
But why would chicken bones be a telltale sign we were here?

4. Plutonium and nuclear residue

Nuclear testing began in the 1940s and accelerated through the 1950s and 60s before being phased out.
The amount of plutonium spread by testing has left a clear spike, like a fingerprint, in the environment.
Even now, we can identify samples from the 1950s and 1960s by the presence of plutonium and other radionuclides.

5. Fossil fuels and climate change

We’ve been digging up and burning fossil fuels for a long time.
The carbon (CO2) pollution from burning the fuels will also eventually be recorded in rock.

Markers upon markers

There are many more markers, from sudden shifts in distribution of animal species, soil erosion and pollution, to refined metals, to looming mass extinctions of species.
Will these markers be recognisable long term?
And – as some geologists argue – can we even say this is a distinct epoch, given it’s only just begun in geological terms?

Crawford Lake: What the past can teach us about urban living today

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수요일, 7월 19, 2023

Further, as a limnologist studying inland waters I have long understood that lakes are sentinels of climate change.

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Further, as a limnologist studying inland waters I have long understood that lakes are sentinels of climate change.
Small changes in environmental conditions can lead to larger changes in a lake’s physical, chemical and biological processes, impacting the ecosystem services they provide.
And what, if anything, can it teach us about how we interact with our environments?

A local history of environmental change

This varving allows for particularly accurate historical dating of environmental events.
But even beyond its status as a Golden Spike candidate, Crawford Lake’s sediments tell a powerful story of human history that is both local and global.
Thus, in one continuous sediment core, we witness Indigenous and colonial local histories, as well as the global signature of an inflection point in Earth systems due to human activities.

The impacts of intentions

Ultimately, Crawford Lake’s sediments teach us that humans have always — and will always — change our environments in some way.
But it is our cultures, discourses and attitudes towards our environment that ultimately determine what this change will look like.
It’s easy to focus on the negative impacts that humans can have on the environment.

Reversing urban impacts

As we are — for the first time in human history — a predominantly urban species, it is now more important than ever to design our cities to help ensure our urban areas create net positive outcomes to local biodiversity and climate impacts.
The possibilities are as diverse as the landscapes where the cities are situated, compounded with the collective creativity of their inhabitants.
Toronto, the largest urban area close to Crawford Lake, might adopt measures being undertaken by other cities around the world, for instance creating wildlife habitat corridors connecting its existing ravine systems, and expanding the efforts of locals using their private yards as refuges for native plants.
We can tap into the best that our species is capable of, improving our quality of living along the way.