The earth has existed for centuries, during which many organisms and species have inhabited it. However, over the span of billions of years the species that reigns supreme at this moment in time are the homo sapiens, or more commonly known as humans. “Humans [now] dominate every flux and cycle of the planet’s ecology and geochemistry” (Kareiva 2011). Our supremacy over earth’s vast regions has led to the creation of the term Anthropocene. Anthropocene is a term created to define the current authority humans exerts onto the earth its inhabitants, and its many environments.
Our largest impact began with the Industrial Revolution. We tore down landscapes, blew holes into mountains, and remade sceneries in our image for the purpose of corporation, transportation, and enterprise. At that time though, the earth’s environments were all around and plentiful, making our adjustments seemingly minimal. However, two hundred years later, with a population well over six billion, “one-third to one-hald of the land surface has been transformed by human action” (Vitousek et al 1997). The question now is: Can humans live on this earth without causing the eventual extinction of non-man-made nature?
Right now, the answer is ambiguous, but it may be favoring no. Since the twentieth century, efforts were made to protect lands from being destroyed or altered by man, such as the Yosemite National Park and the Grand Canyon. Now almost “13 percent of the world’s land mass is protected” (Kareiva). However, “we are losing many more special places and species than we’re saving” (Kareiva). Our inability to prevent the destruction we ultimately cause to species and landscapes causes us to question our abilities to protect future lands. For example, our capacity to “halt deforestation in the amazon [is questioned to be] feasible” or not (Kareiva).
“Since the early 19th century, a number of thinkers have argues that the greatest use of nature is as a source of solitary spiritual renewal, describing nature as a place to escape modern life” (Kareiva). However, to solve the problem we face now, we shouldn’t view the nature as something isolated from modern society, but rather attempt to coexist with it. To do so, we must show people why conservation is a societal priority through “demonstrating how the fates of nature and people are deeply intertwined” (Kareiva). In doing so, we can stop viewing the earth as the man-made vs. the natural and instead view all of earth as a “tangle of species and wildness amidst lands used for food production, mineral extraction, and urban life.”
We can achieve this is through the partnership of conservationists and corporations in a “science based effort to integrate the value of nature’s benefits into their operations and cultures” (Kareiva). Then this type of movement could cause a trickle down effect, where workers and families begin to notice the overall change in the mindset of the corporations and acquire some incentive to protect nature.
In the end, we must do what’s right for both the world’s survival and our prosperity, and in doing so we can serve both worlds in a positive way, so that eventually they both meld into one.
