Sienna Pickard
U0896408
Emma Marris' "Learning to Love Exotic Species" through the lens of
Karieva's "Conservation in the Anthropocene"
As much as we as humans try to protect and conserve our planet’s natural resources, there seems to be no going back. We humans have already destroyed our planet. In the article “Conservation in the Anthropocene,” Karieva starts off by saying that “By its own measures, conservation is failing. Biodiversity on Earth continues its rapid decline… Simply put, we are losing many more special places and species than we're saving.” Karieva also defines this time period in which we live, referred to as the Anthropocene as a “new geological era in which humans dominate every flux and cycle of the planet's ecology
Anthropocene is a term used to describe earth’s history including when humans dominated a majority of natural processes globally. Anthropocence was a term used throughout the article to discuss the impact humankind had on the environment that caused many changes that had a negative impact over many years. Another term used was anthrones, the human footprint, which describes how much human kind has made lasting impassions on the earth. These terms have made me come to the realization anthropology operates at the crossroads of social and physical sciences, along with humanities to examine the diversity of humankind across many cultures and time.
By following the understanding of extinctions up to the present day, Kolbert addresses that extinctions are not strictly catastrophic or uniformitarian. Rather, by citing the major and minor extinctions such as the disappearance of the great auk the End-Cretaceous extinction Kolbert proves that extinctions have a wide variety of causes. Finally, with the grim depiction past and present day extinctions, Kolbert moves on to discuss the title topic: The Sixth Extinction. The term Anthropocene refers to the height of human alteration of the planet earth, which is thought to have begun during the Industrial Revolution. As humans dramatically alter the earth and its ecosystems, it is predicted that humans will eventually cause the sixth extinction if the current environmental trends continue. A combination of accelerated climate change, overhunting, deforestation, and natural ecosystem patterns have begun wiping out entire species at alarming rates. Truly, Kolbert emphasizes that all of humanity’s understanding of extinction is pointing to a devastating mass-extinction which could eventually affect the same beings which catalyzed
The article by Bambury echoes the scientists warning that human beings should stop destroying the environment citing that it will adversely affect their survival. The article states that humans are stewards of the planet Earth and if they destroy it, they will bring misery to themselves. Besides, the study criticizes humans terming them as a species that may phase out other forms of life out of the planet Earth.
In “The Changing Nature of Nature: Environmental Politics in the Anthropocene” environmental politician Paul Wapner depicts the human impacts on nature, and their significant intervention in ecosystem dynamics. His research outlines the “end of nature” (Wapner, 37) and aims to put emphasis on the beginning of the Anthropocene, suggesting that we are finally realizing that nature is not merely a material object. With this in mind, Wapner argues that the ways in which we protect nature should be significantly different, this, justifying his study. In order to form an argument, Wapner begins by summarizing a general piece of academic research, and through this is then able to provide an organized overview of the logic of his argument. The alternation
Dictionary.com defines biodiversity as the variety of life in the world or in a particular habitat or ecosystem. The increase in growth of both economic activity and population on the planet are the central sources of the sixth mass extinction, altering the overall biodiversity of Earth. Even though new animals, plants, and other species are being found all the time, many others are also being wiped out. “Conservation International estimates that one species now goes extinct every 20 minutes, a thousand times faster than the norm during earth’s history… [and] we may be the first generation in human history that literally has
Defining the Anthropocene Through Reason In the article “Defining the Anthropocene,” geologists Lewis and Maslin constrain the plausible start dates of the Anthropocene to reveal the importance of human actions on nature. Before Lewis and Maslin, several scientists, environmentalists, and historians had written on the history and the future impact of the Anthropocene; however, none had concluded on a start date to this new epoch of human-nature interaction. Through a geologists perspective Lewis and Maslin aim to define the beginning of the Anthropocene through geological evidence.
Edgar Allen Poe’s short stories, “The Black Cat” and “The Cask of Amontillado” are both about murder. In “The Black Cat”, the narrator is a man who becomes an alcoholic and kills his wife in the cellar. In “The Cask of Amontillado” Montresor is a man who takes revenge on a friend by leaving him to die in the catacombs. Both characters are guilty of murder, but reader may think that the narrator deserves a milder punishment for the following reasons: he lost control, he did not plan his murder, and he was an alcoholic and had no control over his actions.
An article “Anthropocene: Humanity has changed the Earth so much that it has entered a new epoch, scientists conclude “by Andrew Griffin on UK Independent news on Friday 8 January 2016, pointed out what happens to the Earth and how humans affect the environment.
According to the article “The Anthropocene: Can Humans Survive A Human Age?”, our society is now passing through a new geological age so called Anthropocene, characterized by a centralization of the human being in the society. However, looking at the humanity today, it does not seem to be so. I would rather say money is the center of the world nowadays; in fact, everything turns around it: it is a limitless loop that walks with us for our entire life. Because of the people’s careless toward the earth, our home, Anthropocene will be maybe remembered (if it will be even a way to be remembered) as the darkest era for the human species. In fact, the climate and the environment change take hold in this era and they are strictly linked to the bad
Has Earth entered into a new geologic epoch, characterized by human influences? A recent study, spear-headed by the British Geological Survey, has come to the conclusion that man’s global impact has become distinct enough to end the Holocene and effectively begin the Anthropocene. Published in Science, the study identifies how man’s impact on our oceans, resources, climate, and vegetation has altered the sedimentary makeup of the planet. Massive species invasions, increased rates of extinction, genetically modified plants, redistributed metals, sediment, hydrocarbons, fossils, increased levels of carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus all combine to create signals that geologists interpret to denote a break in the Holocene
Since the Industrial Revolution we have practiced deforestation, burned fossil fuels, and as a result we have disrupted stable ecosystems. Advances in medicine and technology have given humans the ability to increase their carrying capacity. While increasing our carrying capacity we have also decreased biodiversity around the world. We have introduced different species in new environments to help ourselves
“Humanity’s terrifying impact on Earth justifies new Anthropocene epoch” is the title of an article published in the Guardian newspaper in October 2014, the purpose of this essay is to assess if this statement was and is true.
Through the years, our planet has been negatively affected by anthropogenic activities. The Anthropocene has been thought of as a geological period where human activity has negatively impacted ecological systems on the planet. These harmful activities have led to, air pollution, soil degradation, and soil contamination in urban and suburban areas, by dangerous pollutants like heavy metals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (Kumar & Hundal, 2016). Soil and air pollution and other environmental issues and pressures will continue to be a problem as the world’s population rises in an urbanizing society. Now, more than ever, we must collectively work towards a good Anthropocene, which is essentially building sustainable systems that will mitigate the environmental harm already done to the planet and its people. A good Anthropocene will have positive impacts on the natural, built, and social environments.
After the industrial revolution the Earth left its sustainability (Holocene) era to enter an uncertain future. The Anthropocene period involves the Earth’s well-being since this period of sustainability ended and the Earth has become more susceptible to the destructive ways of its human inhabitants. A group of twenty-eight scientist have recently (2009) gathered to devise a way to ensure humans do not continue their trend towards irreversible damage. These scientist came up with the framework for defining a reasonable range for humans to work in. Passing these thresholds could mean effects to local and regional problems to global effects depending on which boundaries are pushed. These planetary boundaries, with each threshold threat stated,
The animal kingdom, being the kingdom that we interact with the most is becoming threatened by us, the humans. The process of evolution and the survival of the fittest are processes of natural selection. Nature will evolve and get to a point that current animals wont be longer existing, but humans are accelerating and stopping that natural process. Humans are the most responsible when animals become extinct, threatened or endangered. Mainly humans don’t realize the damage they are causing to the environment by making small actions that seem insignificant, but when many humans in the planet do the same, small, insignificant action, it becomes something big and it can affect the environment, animals and nature.