" If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe , then
man would have only four years of life left. No more bees , no more pollination
, no more animals , no more man."
-Albert Einstein (Goodreads.com)
This one statement by Einstein sums up everything I am going to
discuss about Anthropocene. We all have studied Darwin's theory of Evolution , but
not many people think about concepts like
how evolution can lead to extinction. General Systems theory also explains the
logic behind evolution using concepts centralization & decentralization and
negative entropy. If you look at any side effects of modernization and
urbanization such a global warming , raise in sea level , pollution , nuclear
waste disposal suggest a destructive phenomenon which leads to extinction of
many species presently and may even
lead to the extinction of mankind.
Anthropocene:
In the year 2000
, Paul Crutzen , a Dutch Nobel Prize
winning atmospheric chemist and Eugene Stoermer , a biologist suggested that a
new geological epoch has begun and it was named Anthropocene. The human
influence on the global environment has become so massive and significant that
it became a geological force by itself which can influence the functioning of
earth. Some geologist and environmental scientist argue that Anthropocene
started with the Neolithic Revolution which marked the beginning of agriculture
and farming where in man started to
exploit earth while a majority of them consider that it began with the
Industrial Revolution in the mid 1800 and has grown exponentially since the
World War 2 during which advancements in technology started growing
exponentially. Closely associated with Anthropocene is great mass extinction
considered as the sixth biggest in the history of earth created by us. The
usage of this term is informal at the moment but (WILL STEFFEN, 2011) .
Industrial
Revolution a Systemic Growth and Earth System:
Bertalanffy while presenting the future in
system-theoretical aspect says that " there are two factors in which our
civilization is unique in comparison to those that perished in the past. One is
the technical development which permits a control of nature never before
achieved and would open a way to alleviate hunger, disease etc. to which
humanity was previously exposed. The other factor is the global nature of our
civilization. previous ones were limited by geographical boundaries , and
comprised only limited group of human beings." (Bertalanffy, 1968) .He also predicts
that the struggle for power will lead to
universal atomic devastation and at this point we can say that the prediction
is true as we all know that third world war if at all arises will be atomic in
nature. Before understanding about what happened during
Industrial Revolution , we need to look at the interaction between human system
and earth from a point where it began. It all started a some million years ago
when humans invented and mastered the art of making tools and weapons out of
stones , then we invented fire and these activities changed the way we interact
with nature. Over time we developed civilizations and continued to manipulate
environment. Then with Neolithic Revolution , we started cultivation and
farming which involved clearing of forest land and conversion of land to farms.
These activities oh hunting , farming and taming of animals is the start of the
current day bio-diversity imbalance. (WILL STEFFEN, 2011)
Much later in early 900AD , we developed the
use of fossil fuels but not exactly in the form we use today. Then comes
industrial revolution in 1700's followed by thermo-industrial revolution of the
19th century. This increased the demand for fossil fuels and resulted in
expansion of civilizations which in turn lead to a demand of usable land which
was made available by cutting down forests adding to the depleting
bio-diversity. The use of these fossil flues lead to pollution and release of
green house gases into environment. (WILL STEFFEN, 2011)
Then comes the
era of Great Acceleration which is the post World War 2 era which showed a
exponential trend in growth and urbanization. Urbanization resulted in people
migrating towards cities and becoming industrial work force by abandoning
agriculture which by this time was one of the major source of maintaining
balance of green house gases and this resulting in further increase of CO2 and
other gases in addition to that because of industrial growth. A simple yet
significant statistical figure showing the advent of new epoch is the
atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide which in December 2014 reached
399ppm by volume , much above the standard mean level of Holocene ( which is
still officially the epoch we are in). (WILL STEFFEN, 2011) (International Geosphere-Biosphere
Programme, 2015)
This growth can
be explained by considering human eco system/society as an open system and
development and technological advancement are a result of neg-entropy and also
as a mechanism to establish hierarchy and order with in this system. But while
considering ourselves as a system and growing , we never realized that we were
subsystem of a bigger system called "The Earth System" , which in
turn is a part of System called Universe. This lack of systemic thinking in
interacting with the nature may lead to fatal consequences.
The Earth System
consists of all the interacting physical , chemical, ecological and biological
entities and processes of our planet earth. Even the natural processes
controlling the atmosphere and the geological tectonic forces acting inside and
many such complex processes are included in this Earth System. (Anthropocene.info)
Until the recent
Great Acceleration , our actions which were influencing the Earth System didn't raise alarming concerns. This may be
because of our failure to understand the feedback mechanism between the Human
System and The Earth System. We never completely understood the change process
The Earth System undergoes in order to attain equilibrium which will result in
the Mass extinction of species. We never realized that we can be the species
which faces extinction in the next mass extinction process which is most likely under process in the
form of Anthropocene.
Need for a
Sustainable Systemic Governance
From
the discussion presented above , we can understand that we failed to understand
systemic interactions with the earth system. Now that we have realized this ,
it becomes our duty to design effective systemic governance in the Anthropocene
era. There is a need for international organizations which will work beyond
borders in understanding this feedback mechanism and control the
consequences. At the moment , United
Nations and few other organizations are working in this regard. Understanding
this urgency , The International
Society for the Systems Sciences also set the theme of their 59th General meeting being held at Germany in August as " Governing the
Anthropocene: the greatest challenge for systems thinking in practice?". (ISSS) .Let us contribute
our part in making this world a sustainable place for mankind.
Is it a question worth asking
The proposed question poses a discussion about a
topic which is one of the major problems the world today is facing and also
encourages us to analyze the need to think systematically in our day to day life.
This systems thinking might influence people in finding solutions to some
unanswered questions.
