Nature is a biological archetype of resilience; yet, it is unfortunately intoxicated by the Anthropocene, which is not just a theory or an opinion, but rather a dangerous, globalized reality.
The concept of Anthropocene was first elaborated by Paul Crutzen, Nobel Prize in Atmospheric Chemistry in 2000. The word comes from the Greek Anthropos (man) and Kainos (new).
Anthropocene means “anthropic”. It refers to the current era of the evolutionary history of the Earth, characterized by the transformative impact on the entire planet system caused by human activities. Such activities have contaminated the planet through Global Warming, with the chemical and biological alterations of ecosystems and the two “human pandemics”: global corruption and hybris, the disease of power which we have defined as moral insanity. Anthropocene also results in biological and social diseases as great demographic growth, urbanization, overbuilding and deforestation.
Interdisciplinary scholars are studying the Anthropocene and evaluating the meaning of human activities, their impact and the damage caused to the environmental ecosystem. Studies show that planet has reached its natural limit; men are not a simple participant, but have become a dominating and destructive force for the planet.
Anthropocene should deal with the vicious circles that place men at the center instead of nature. This would lead to great progress which our Foundation refers to as the “New Green Deal of Anthropocene”
Some believe Anthropocene first started in 1748 with James Watt’s steam engine, a symbol of the Industrial Revolution and therefore of the first large emissions of CO2; but most changes took place in the 1950s with the “great acceleration” of biological lifestyles, resulting in an incredible increase in entropy which makes the system-planet chaotic and is very destructive for the environment.
Once we reach planetary limits there is no going back. As philosopher Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4 B.C. – 65 A.D.) said: “Whatever structure has been reared by a long sequence of years, at the cost of great toil and through the great kindness of the gods, is scattered and dispersed by a single day.” And we know we are almost out of time and we risk an irreversible catastrophe that is threatening the future of humanity, the environment, economics and society.
Blind biological, industrial, social and economic policies have caused systematic and complex emergencies strictly connected to the Anthropocene. These have made us incapable of seeing the limits of uncontrolled development. We have become selfishly indifferent to a growth model and a circular, regenerative and biological eco-friendly wellbeing. In fact, by keeping the mantra of innovation, overdevelopment, wealth and technologies, we have accepted a linear economic model only based on profit, which doesn’t allow us to go from a linear to circular economic change.
We are suffering from Alzheimer’s of consciousness; we have been put to sleep and are not emotionally involved in problems. We are used to thinking of cause-effect, with an anthropocentric understanding of here and now, of abundance and consumerism, suppressing future generations.
This kind of development has globally accelerated the biological lifestyle, increasing entropy. This is why we have reached this globalized model of Anthropocene, ignoring that we all live in our common home that is slowly catching on fire. Our behavior has resulted in very serious planetary emergencies just like the one caused by the link between Global Warming and the current COVID-19 pandemic.
People need a new innovative overview of the world. They need a new horizon as for maieutic and resilience, and we most importantly need to become responsible when facing the risks and consequences of Anthropocene, which need to be dealt with in a self-aware and ethical way, and not with resignation.
According to our Foundation “Science for Peace EU”, the meaning of Anthropocene is twofold: one is generally negative as Gaia’s health is strongly affected by the lack of biodiversity, eco-mafias, industrial and financial lobbies and tax haven; but it also has a positive and optimistic meaning (same as that of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation) based on the fact that the human world, represented by social sciences, and the Earth, represented by natural science, are inseparable, and we therefore need to come up with a new geopolitics where the Earth is seen as a political subject and not just as a mere object to exploit.
We also agree with researchers as Johan Rockstrom and Will Steffen who identified nine planetary limits of Anthropocene not to be crossed to avoid destroying the fundamental balance of the Planet: climate, biodiversity, deforestation, cycle of ozone and phosphorus, fresh waters, the ozone layer, acidification of oceans, pollution and atmospheric aerosol (that is, the concentration of fine parts which are devasting for the human health).
The concept of planetary limits allows us to measure how much a certain level of pollution affects the weak environmental balance, and identify nine limits not to be overcome to avoid irreversibly modifying the great global balance as the variations of biochemical cycles and that of ozone and phosphorus.
We must also add a tenth limit, that is the spreading of new pollutants into the atmosphere. We are referring to the molecules of synthesis and nanoparticles which, according to our Foundation, are among the main responsible pollutants of our immune system. They become real taxis for the virus (currently, COVID-19) and are transferred in the five-star hotels of our immune cells.
If we truly want to begin a process of a change, we should start asking ourselves why we were so blind, mute and deaf not to realize the damage we were causing with the spread of the Anthropocene biological phenomena, at the expense of nature-centered phenomena. Nature and biology act at their own speed, often incompatible with the accelerated speed of the Anthropocene, making the relation between environment and development very hard.
The environment has an evolutionary value, and therefore it can’t and must not be subject to commercialization. Most importantly, we need to start thinking in global terms, understanding that environmental change is a reflection of the changes in human societies and intervening on the environment means intervening on societies as well, with a huge impact on present and future generations.
The great constructive and innovative challenge of Anthropocene, in its positive meaning, is our ability to reconsider the biological basis of our existence and re-write the “social contract” which binds us to Gaia: will we be able to come up with a new development model that can address everyone’s legitimate needs, providing essential goods and services, in an eco-friendly, socially sustainable way without overstepping our planet’s limits?
Global Warming causes great crises and challenges in the field of development, national health systems, security, migration flows and peace.
This will result in a new geography of the world because borders will be changed – people will be forced to leave their homes because of climate change and the increase in the sea level and their acidification, the draining of the rivers and entire areas will become deserted and impossible to harvest because they will be flooded or uninhabitable due to the heat. The rapid increase in temperature is a tragic testimony; if we don’t do anything, it will increase by +4°C by 2050.
It is not easy to integrate sustainable development and the depletion and intoxication of environmental resources.
The ozone hole, the greatest expression of Anthropocene, was discovered in 1999 as a consequence of greenhouse gases and, above all, chlorofluorocarbon; we now know it can get bigger and smaller and that humans, with their behavior and actions, can influence its growth or shrinking; we also know it is only possible to go back to its physiological condition by reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Since mid-August 2020, the hole has grown rapidly and reached a peak of about 14.8 million km2 on 20 September 2020, spreading on most of the Antarctic continent. This has been the most long-lasting and deep hole since monitoring first began 40 years ago. The 2020 record Antarctic ozone hole finally closed at the end of December, making less clear the need for continuous international action to implement the 1987 Montreal Protocol that prohibits the use of chemical substances which reduce the layer of ozone.
Another devastating effect of the progressing increase of Global Warming is the melting of glaciers and permafrost in Canada and Siberia - which causes emissions of a great amount of methane into the atmosphere - all caused by anthropic emissions of greenhouse gases. Just to give an example, 90% of the Planet’s glaciers are found in Antarctica and we know that since 2009 it has been losing 250 billion tons of ice per year, clearly rising sea levels, which has been happening at an incredible speed of 3.1 million per year.
Therefore, with the increase of Global Warming, there is an increase in the sea level and a reduction of shorelines, with a flooding future for Venice, London, Malta, the Greek Islands, Manhattan and Bangladesh; other islands as Seychelles, Maldives, and many others will disappear.
Therefore, all ecosystems are stressed due to Anthropocene, just like the immune system. This damages the biological life of the planet, compromising many species and causing many others to migrate, which represents a serious threat to biodiversity.
The negative effects of climate change go hand in hand with the increase of diseases caused by peaks of heat, malnutrition (which affects about 13% of the world populations), allergies due to pollen and, above all, infectious diseases as lethal viruses which, just like COVID-19, turn into terrible pandemics.
Global Warming has caused a global invasion of new pathogenic microorganisms. The biodiversity of vaccines and very expensive monoclonal antibodies are currently being studied, but this is causing great stress to our planet’s health systems.
Moreover, the Anthropocene of global chemical pollution (poisoning of the soil with synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, some drugs, home cleaning products) is caused by pathogens that are passed on to the organism and alter the endocrine system; moreover, they poison the immune system causing acquired immunodeficiency which also reduced the efficacy of vaccines.
Environmental pollution is also the cause of many diseases and every year takes many human lives. Unfortunately, it is not enough to come up with semi-provisions to reduce car pollution for a few days a year to protect people from the invisible killers, that is fine dust with a diameter of less than 2.5 microns which find shelter in our lungs and cause respiratory diseases, asthma and cancer. According to the European Environment Agency (EEA), over 500,000 people die every year due to air pollution and fine dust are responsible for 80% of deaths. Nowadays, we have learned that the spread of Coronavirus in some areas was favored by fine dust in the atmosphere. We know for sure that environmental pollution causes more deaths than tobacco.
The economic and environmental crises caused by Anthropocene lead to large migrations (about 25 million people per year) which have resulted in death and violent rejections as these people are wrongly seen as invaders. Recent studies show that the progressive deterioration of the environment has become the main cause of migration in the world, therefore resulting climate wars which show a hotter and more violent world.
Anthropocene has made the environment and biological life unnatural, and the more we distance ourselves from the goal of not reaching over 2°C in heat, the more we risk reaching a point of no return. This is also true for social change as a slight disruption of the environment leads to huge and unexpected social transformations. For example, drought or heavy rainfall have devastating effects on harvesting, and this causes consistent migration.
Intensive expansion of agriculture has great toxic effects on the environment also because nowadays the Earth is almost all cultivated industrially. The ozone cycle has been modified and, due to the use of fossil energies (pesticides), the nutritious and fishery biological environment has been intoxicated, as well as our human immune system that is our greatest heritage.
There is still a belief that, due to their size, oceans are not influenced by anthropocenic human activities, but this is not true. The impact caused by transport by sea is manyfold: CO2 emissions from boats contribute to the acidification of seawaters, while maritime traffic causes pollution and contamination due to the release of fuel. Seafloors have mineral resources and biological functions and are therefore considered a “common world heritage”.
Lastly, industrial anthropocenic fishery not only drastically reduces the fish fauna but also harms and kills marine mammals like dolphins and turtles as they get trapped in nets or they eat plastic. The consequence on the environment is the loss of fish biodiversity which does not allow oceanic ecosystems to regenerate themselves to benefit humans.
Apart from economic and environmental consequences, it also causes microbiological invasions of parasites which become viral for all environments, becoming responsible for the loss of biodiversity as they affect animal species, as well as vegetable species and microorganisms.
The emergency of pollination and the decrease of its function caused by industrial crops and the heavy use of pesticides is not limited to the domestic bees of the hive, but also concerns many bee species, invertebrate pollinators, wild insects and birds, and climate change affecting wind. For a rebirth of pollination we do have some alternatives, as biological agriculture and agroecology which can lead to changes in the production of food consumption.
Our positive and optimistic perception of the agri-food chain leads us to favor projects which respect the principle of “Climate-Smart Agriculture”, an innovative alternative to increase carbon sequestration capacity in the soil, reduce a part of greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere, maintain biodiversity preserving the resources of agricultural soils and water resources.
Of course, the exponential increase of the world population and the decrease of fertile land required more production of food. This, however, is made more complicated due to the worsening of environmental conditions, and it is harder to ensure the quality of food, the protection of the environment and food security.
Experts are studying new food and new ways to produce it. For example, a first solution is to satisfy the growing world food needs through hi-tech solutions, as cultured meat produced from animal cells which should replace all intensive livestock breeding that use harmful pesticides and antibiotics.
Another solution is to find new food that can satisfy all needs and learn from climate change. Among the “food of the future” there are algae, well appreciated in the East and now also in the West; they are easy to grow and have great beneficial effects – they are rich in Vitamin C, chlorophyll and are effective against cholesterol; microproteins produced in the lab from the cells of fungi, yeast and mold; and insects as crickets, silkworms, ant eggs, grasshoppers and locusts, rich in noble proteins, which were considered to be the plagues of Egypt, could soon become a real treat!
Another very serious and ever-present phenomena caused by Anthropocene is the world production of waste: two-thirds of world products (thousands of tons), ends up in the dump, one-third of which are out in the open, especially in the poorest countries of the world.
In 2025 the world population will produce 1.4 kg of waste per person per day, double the current average. Two-thirds of waste are not treated. As for the disposal of toxic, untreated waste they are estimated at 200 billion tons per year.
Managing waste is one of the great inequalities between northern and southern countries of the world even though the 1992 Basel Convention prohibits the transfer of dangerous waste to developing states; unfortunately, this ban is often overturned, as in the case of big passenger ships to be scrapped, registered in countries as India, China or Pakistan and disposed in very precarious situations when it comes to security.
In such regard, we can’t forget the tragedy of the Italian journalist Ilaria Alpi and her cameraman Milan Rovatin, killed in Somalia after discovering a traffic of toxic waste in exchange for weapons. We are still waiting for justice to be made.
As for radioactive waste, not many know that the radioactive waste of nuclear power plants takes millennia to be disposed and are therefore kept in barrels and placed in deposits made of reinforced concrete, at least a little less than 1 km above the land surface. The problem is that there is no regulation on how to label the level of danger, nor the language it should be written in. Language will keep changing and in millions of years it will be different than what we speak today so we would need to find a way to make sure that, even millions of years from now, it is clear that is radioactive waste.
The millenary half-life of nuclear waste, which are dispersed in the atmosphere, represent the tragic heritage left by radioactive Anthropocene to present and future generations.
The huge plastic islands in the Pacific Ocean and the many kilos of plastic found in the stomachs of whales and sperm oil on the shore remind us that plastic is one of the diseases of Anthropocene and represents a huge threat for marine biodiversity. The efforts to reduce plastic consumption are still too weak and inefficient, even though there are attempts to recover plastic from the oceans both fishing the floating waste and by creating a huge barrier to stop them. However, truly speaking, we won’t be able to get rid of the large majority of plastic laying on the bottom of the ocean and irreparably damaging its marine ecosystem.
The growth of the car industry and the search for life in wealth and wellbeing beyond eco-friendly development, are causing the planet to reach its limit. There is a strong need for energy which can’t be satisfied. This is the debt we will leave for future generations.
The inalienable lifestyle of the Homos Sapiens, who developed into Homo Economicus and Tecnologicus, lead us to live in a world that moves quickly and is over-connected, fully dependent on electric devices and databases. Tv, internet, e-mail, Sky, YouTube, Netflix and nowadays e-commerce (let’s not forget that Amazon alone earned USD 145 billion during the pandemic, USD 30 billion more than the previous year), use up an incredible amount of energy. This has devastating consequences for biodiversity, resulting in Global Warming. Just to give one example, every year the videos watched on YouTube generate 10 million tons of CO2.
At the natural state of climate, apart from the Anthropocene there is also another anthropocenic component that produces greenhouse gases (CO2, as well as methane, nitrogen oxide, halocarbons, aerosol). Natural systems can only partly absorb greenhouse gases of anthropic origin coming from million-year-old deposits and reserves; this is why the concentration of carbon dioxide went from 280 to 418 parts per million in 2020, reaching the highest level in at least 800,000 years, with the clear consequence of an important increase in temperature.
We must not forget that one-fourth of the world greenhouse gas emissions come from producing energy (electricity and heating), which usually comes from the combustion of fossil energy. Another one-fourth comes from deforestation which does not absorb CO2 from intensive agriculture (which mainly releases methane and nitrous oxide). Lastly, one-fifth comes from industrial pollution and transportation.
We should reconsider energetic sobriety policies, as well as consumeristic models in all fields, especially in the food industry as the increase in production and consumption of meat has an impact on our health, on biodiversity, climate and greenhouse gases.
Cities have become a real circle of hell; they are the center of Anthropocene as most of humanity is urbanized and lives an over-consumeristic life, with an abundance of goods and services, and a world population that is growing exponentially.
International cooperation is very unstable, which causes civil disobedience, increasing populism and nationalism. One of the positive signs of Anthropocene should be to overcome particularisms to give new strength to humanity. It is estimates that by 2100 there will be 11 billion people on the Earth, and it will be very important to assess their environmental impact, how and if they will be able to coexist, how and when they will defeat poverty, fear, inequalities, inhumanity, the lust for power. The goal is to create policies that will allow the growth of future generations.
Environmental policies can be guided by environmental sciences which are the point of reference of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), under the control of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). All these scientific organizations are free from politics. All IPCC reports show an important destination in the fight against climate change, based on the fundamental understanding that it is necessary to keep Global Warming below 1.5°C and not 2 C if we want to significantly reduce its risks and consequences. This will make it possible for humans and ecosystems to better adapt to climate conditions.
In order to change our lifestyles, not to consume all the resources of the Planet for future generations, whether that is our sons and daughters or our grandsons and granddaughters, we should all estimate the cost of what we buy in terms of oil, greenhouse gases and anthropocenic dollars; this should also include groceries, as we almost always buy more than we biologically need.
Conclusions
The political dimension of the Anthropocene refers to a world based on the progressive wellbeing of the intensive exploitation of environmental resources.
Our hope is that we can change our lifestyle, teaching future generations since childhood, starting with our sons and daughters. We must teach them to respect nature and not to waste all natural resources. These should be used in a responsible and eco-friendly way, not only based on a country’s GDP. This also means respecting the planet in a nature-center way and not based on Anthropocene. If we truly fight against Global Warming we will be able to create millions of jobs, therefore making the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen’s dream come true. She is a doctor and mother of 7 children, and we believe she is the best person to represent the resilient strength of European policies. She should be the ambassador for the future of humanity.
Globalized Anthropocene, mainly a socio-political problem, causes discomfort instead of wellbeing. It is scary because of its side effects, among which insecurity, fear, anxiety, depression, social crises and powerlessness. This is why the resilience of our unconscious can be defended by dreaming a better world, in agreement with nature, where biological life is at the center of an unavoidable condition of the survival of human beings.
To sum it up, we believe Global Warming and the Anthropocene are huge problems that no world nation can fight on its own. It is important to help and support one another because, together, we will be able to truly understand what we are dealing with and come up with human and resilient answers for life on our living planet.
As for the world governments, we expect a socio-political will that questions the individualistic growth models to head towards a circular economy, energy saving policies, an equal distribution of wealth among nations, negotiations for a true world peace based on the principles of equity and democracy. At individual level we can all act in our daily life to try to behave in a virtuous and eco-friendly way to give back to humans the title of Sapiens.
We know no one can save themselves on their own and that climate issues are strictly linked to social problems: there is a crisis of all humanity which has caused the climate crises and, nowadays, also the world COVID-19 pandemic. It is only by raising awareness on how we reach the most destructive Anthropocene that we will be able to truly understand what to do for our future. And, most importantly, we must all feel involved and ready to take part in the change, by “taking sides” with our planet’s health.