The term anthropocene refers to the geological age of the earth. The current age, or the stage of the earth that started approximately 200 years ago when the industrial revolutions began. One of the writers of the articles, Kareiva talked about the conservation projects that are held around the world. Due to greed, human destroyed vast amounts of land for money and power. It wasn’t until recently that people found out the ultimate consequences of past actions and started conservation projects in hopes that the damages will be undone. However, Kareiva displayed what the world is doing for conservation, especially America in this case, is wrong. In the name of the conservation project, living spaces were taken away and the species that must be preserved is not preserved. It is basically wasting money and doing noting. Kareiva mentioned the Yellows Stone State Park. The park was set up to preserved the beautiful natural scenery of Yellow Stone and to save the small animals that dwell in such unique habitat. The untold story about the park is that people, especially Native Americans, were driven away from their home. It is evident that some conservation projects are fairly controversial as they are benefitting others than the just the nature and its inhabitants.
Before the industrial revolution, it was the Earth itself that controlled itself. The humans did not alter the Earth’s ecosystem. It was the nature that controlled people’s life. When technology developed and human population increased, the controller of the Earth shifted to the humans. The factories, deforestation, and vast amount of toxins and liter started to alter the ecosystem of the Earth. During last 200 years, humans changed the nature dramatically that it is had to find the right solution to the problem. Humans do know the polluted air causes many problems, however, it is also a fact that society cannot run without the factories producing carbon dioxide. Kareiva said, “ Nature is so resilient that it can recover rapidly from even the most powerful human disturbances.” It means that whatever damages that human causes to the Earth can be recovered. However, the ongoing changes shows that the humans are damaging the Earth without giving it time to recover. The statistics, science, and what we see and feel right now shows that Earth has changed and there are more ongoing changes.
Both articles mentioned that human population now dominates this planet. In the stage of Anthropocene, it is important to find a way to cope the Earth’s nature with the urban societies. In my opinion, many of the conservation projects and attempts to save the nature seem to be ineffective. Instead of solving problems of the damages that has been already done, I think it is important to change in order to avoid furthermore damages of the Earth. The ocean and the forest will recover rapidly by other conservation projects. However, same thing might happen in the future and our children can be the one to destroy the nature that we brought back. My conclusion is that we need to make sure that people know the consequence of the damages. As the articles say, people dominates the earth and power to change it.
