Newswise — Over the past 50 years, humans have changed the world's ecosystems more rapidly and extensively than in any other comparable period in human history. The Great Acceleration, stage 2 of the Anthropocene epoch, begs the question of how humankind will react in stage 3. A new study reviews three broad philosophical approaches that address the Earth System. This study is published in the latest issue of Ambio.
The third stage of the Anthropocene is defined as the recognition that human activities are indeed affecting the structure and functioning of the Earth System as a whole. Through increased research and understanding, the Internet, and more free and open societies, have influenced humanity to become a self-conscious, active agent in the operation of its own life support system. In this third stage, the three approaches to combat environmental degradation are the business-as-usual approach, mitigation, and geo-engineering options.
The business-as-usual approach is based on three assumptions. First, global change will not be severe or rapid enough to cause major disruptions. Second, the existing market-oriented economic system can deal autonomously with any required adaptations. And third, resources required to mitigate global change proactively would be better spent on more pressing human needs. By the time humans realize that a business-as-usual approach may not work, the world will be committed to further decades or even centuries of environmental change.
The second approach, mitigation, is an alternative pathway into the future based on the recognition that the threat of further global change is serious enough that it must be dealt with proactively. Technology will play a strong role in reducing the pressure on the Earth System. The critical question is whether the trends of dematerialization and shifting societal values become strong enough to trigger a transition of a globalized society toward a much more sustainable one.
The third approach, geo-engineering, involves purposeful manipulation by humans of global-scale processes with the intention of counteracting human-driven environmental change. Geo-engineering solutions raise serious ethical questions and intense debate, such as when unintended and unanticipated side effects of the solutions have severe consequences.
The Great Acceleration is reaching criticality. Enormous, immediate challenges confront humanity throughout the next few decades as it attempts to pass through a bottleneck of continued population growth, excessive resource use, and environmental deterioration. In most parts of the world, the demand for fossil fuels overwhelms the desire to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Whatever unfolds, the next few decades will surely be a tipping point in the evolution of the Anthropocene.
To read the articles, click here: http://www.allenpress.com/pdf/ambi-36-08-06_614..621.pdf
Ambio, a multidisciplinary English language journal, aims to serve the important function of putting into perspective significant developments in the environmental research, policy, and related activities, and to reach specialist, generalists, students, decision- makers, and interested laymen around the world with this information. For more information, please visit http://ambio.allenpress.com.
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