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Still hope fpor the planet in the the Anthropocene Epoch

The ‘age of the human’ may not become the age of destruction, Guardian, David Suzuki, 17 Dec 15 
Our dominance on Earth comes with great responsibility. The Paris climate deal proves that there is hope for our planet – as long as we remember that  omo sapiens has become so dominant a force shaping the properties of the biosphere that scientists now refer to the past two centuries as the Anthropocene Epoch – the age of the human. This role comes with a huge responsibility; one that, it seems, we have lived up to in the climate deal recently agreed in Paris.

We are an infant species, evolving perhaps 150,000 years ago in Africa. For most of our short existence, we were nomadic hunter-gatherers, carrying our possessions while in search of food and anything useful. Compared to the vast herds of mammals in parts of the world, human numbers were small, our technology simple and our ecological impact readily absorbed by the biosphere.

Very suddenly, in evolutionary terms, we’ve exploded into a major global force, altering the air, water, soil and species diversity on a geological scale. We are the most numerous mammal on Earth, empowered by technological innovation, demanding ever more consumer items to satisfy our “wants” instead of our “needs”, driven by corporate hunger for constantly increasing profit in a globalized economy.

 Climate change caused by human generation of greenhouse gases is just one of the degradations of our most fundamental needs caused by our shortsighted actions. Pollution of water, soil and air, destruction of habitat, species extinction and ocean degradation are a few of the others………

Our most fundamental needs for survival and wellbeing must be protected above all else, otherwise we will constantly elevate our parochial interests above the protection of our life-support systems.

In Paris, humanity has demonstrated that the “age of the human” won’t necessarily lead to an age of destruction. There is hope – as long as we remember that our dominance on Earth comes with great responsibility. http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/dec/17/paris-climate-deal-cop21-age-of-the-human-destruction

December 18, 2015 - Posted by | general

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