Anthropocene is defined as human activities that have made an impact on the Earth. Both these articles clearly state how the Earth’s ecosystem is declining due to human beings. Vitousek goes on to say how the majority of the resources that the Earth provides is being used by humans. He says that we live on a “human-dominated planet.” The Earth has greatly changed due to humans. Urban ecology is essentially the interactions between the ecosystem in an urban area. Pollution greatly affects many parts of the environment in a city. Therefore, it is important to understand how humans affect the wildlife present in an urban community.
Vitousek explains that when humans use land, they change and alter the structure of the ecosystem. A large portion of land is being occupied by farm land or industrial factories. The large increase of carbon dioxide due to humans is also a contributing factor to the changing atmosphere. Humans have also altered the oceans. Many marine ecosystems have been destroyed by humans who live near the coast. Carbon dioxide has also played a large part in changing the Earth. Many things that humans do contribute to additional carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Not only do we lose access to natural resources, humans are also increasing the rate at which extinction occurs.
Similarly, Kareiva also explains how humans have been harming the Earth. He also says how people believe that they should only save certain natural causes. Kareiva believes that conservation is a solution to the effects of human beings. However, even with conservation, the ecosystem can never be restored to its prehuman form. One method they used to conserve these places was to restrict the amount of people that were allowed to enter. Conservation also helps prevent threatened places. The problem is that the effects of human activity is all over the Earth. There is not enough resources to be able to protect all these locations. Kareiva stated that we entered “the Anthropocene” where humans dominate the entire planet’s ecosystem. The flaw with conservation is that it is occurring slower than the deterioration of these locations.
Both these articles agree that human activity is not going to make anything better. However, they both believe that solutions should be implemented to help slow the process. Vitousek believes that human dominance will continue and get worse. Kareiva wants to use conservation at a larger scale with many more people involved. Even though both of these articles state how serious an issue athropocene is, they provide solutions to the problem. The effect of humans on this planet has been devastating. It will take everyone’s effort in order to help remedy the problem. A lot of effort needs to be put in to make this successful, which begs the question, “will it ever be solved?”
