The articles written by Vitousek et al and Kareiva et al each discuss the Anthropocene, the study of the era during which human existence and interference have dominated and the effects of this on the environment and various ecosystems. The Anthropocene isolates the era during which the changes that humans have caused as a result from a surge in both population and technology (Vitousek et al) have surged. From repurposing land for farming to tendencies for large numbers of people to live in a costal area, humans change the Earth both for themselves and for the other organisms that inhabit the area. The study of the Anthropocene helps humans see these effects, which may otherwise be unnoticeable, noticeable.
Scientific Magazine’s “Human Domination of Earth’s Ecosystems” offers statistical data to demonstrate just some of the many changes that have occurred to the Earth. Authors Vitousek et al highlight some of the negative and more drastic effects that have come from human actions. For example, “at present, 11% of the remaining birds, 18% of the mammals, 5% of fish, and 8% of plant species on Earth are threatened with extinction” (Vitousek et al) as a result of human presence. Humans also introduced toxic chemicals in the form of pesticides into the environment back in the 1950s, many of which are still present, “accumulated in organisms, and magnified in concentration through food chains” (Vitousek et al). These chemicals, as well as non-toxic but synthetically formed chemicals, threaten the livelihood of not only humans but also other organisms that have been exposed to the chemicals as they continue to circulate the ecosystems. Without Anthropocene, it would be much more difficult to realize and understand the distance to which human actions travel.
Similar to Vitousek, Kareiva et al mentions some of the startling statistics that demonstrate the omnipresence of human activity on Earth. To show the widespread range of the effects of human activity, Kareiva et al also mention in the Breakthrough Journal “fish and whales in remote Arctic oceans are contaminated with chemical pesticides.” Kareiva also explores the unforeseen negative effects of some seemingly positive efforts to protect the Earth. Conservation, “widely viewed as the innocent and uncontroversial practice of purchasing special places threatened by development” (Kareiva et al), has not preserved natural lands and ecosystems so much as it has stripped it of it original elements and characters. While the original 19th century intention for conservation was to protect the “transcendence-enabling idylls” (Kareiva et al) of Earth from increased urbanization in surrounding areas, the results of conservation often led to the uprooting of native people from their homes, and loss of hunting and agricultural land (Kariva et al). Humans’ actions are driven by the desire to both improve and protect land, and this drive overpowers the realization that lives are being unjustly disturbed and uprooted.
The Anthropocene gives humans a time to review, reflect on, and analyze their actions. It provides a time frame to examine all of the effects humans have imparted on the Earth, especially those that were unanticipated and unnoticed before. The Anthropocene highlights the long term and distant consequences that a growing population and dominating tactics have left behind. By acknowledging this era, humans can begin to acknowledge the direct and indirect impacts that the efforts to protect and better the Earth for their own well being have in turn, impacted the Earth for all other organisms as well.
