Let’s begin with a definition.
Perhaps the most important definition of our time.
Anthropocene: a
proposed epoch dating from the commencement of significant human impact on the
Earth's geology and ecosystems, including, but not limited to, anthropogenic
climate change. [Wikipedia]
Key here is the commencement
of significant human impact on the Earth’s geology and ecosystems.
Commencement implies that there was a moment BEFORE humans were able to impact
the Earth’s geology and ecosystems, as well as a moment AFTER.
We, my friends, are living in the after.
I’ve written about this before in a post titled, Forget Self-Aware Machines—We Need Self-Aware Humans, but in the
aftermath of Harvey and Irma, I feel compelled to bring it up again. You see, I’m
tired of listening to conservatives try to debunk global warming. I’m also
tired of listening to liberals try to sell carbon credit schemes and
technology as our savior. To me, anyone arguing about whether or not we’re
destroying the planet is avoiding the most important issue at hand—humanity has already proven itself to be a
geological force, capable of moving and shaping the Earth in ways both
monstrous and wonderful.
This is why we have now entered the age of the Anthropocene,
and while our politicians of course are hesitant to actually approve the term
and the scientists behind it aren’t sure of the exact date in which humanity
truly became a force of nature, I think there is plenty of evidence for our own
eyes to see exactly how our civilization now acts as designer and maker of this
planet.
The most important truth we must begin to discuss is that humans
are powerful, just like Nature herself.
For example, nature can do this:
Pretty wonderful. But guess
what? We can do this:
Nature can also do this:
And we can do this:
And this:
And this:
And this:
And this:
This is human power, and it
can be seen from satellites RIGHT NOW. This
isn’t a theory, or some hypothesis you can avoid. Look around you, open your
eyes and see the evidence. From our skyscrapers to the poisoned rivers…all of
it is ours.
It’s true that Nature
destroys, and often in that destruction creation blooms forth. From the ashes
of this:
Comes this:
From the floods come new
rivers, from the rivers come canyons.From death comes forth life
.
If this is the cycle of
nature, and we are part of nature, are we not governed by the same cosmic rule?
Is this cycle any more avoidable than gravity?
What part of our civilization
must die, so that the planet might live?
And what rises from the ashes of the most devastating aspect of our power?
We’ve been tinkering, moving
and changing the landscape since we learned how to make tools. Essentially
humanity, which sprung from Nature, can be seen as the hands of the Earth, for
it is our race, our species, that is capable of taking nature and moving it,
even from the surface of our planet to the edges of our solar system. More than
any other species on this planet, we have what it takes to shepherd, guardian
and create just as Nature itself.
And with the advent of our
technology, we are as powerful as hurricane Irma, and it seems, at thoughtless
as well.
Yet unlike hurricane Irma, we
can reflect. We can think. We can take a moment before we act, before we
create, before we consume, and we can wonder, “What does it mean to be the
hands of the Earth? What does it mean to be a geological force? Who am I to be
so powerful? What will I do with such power?”
Dear humans, you don’t have to
try and prove anything to one another. What you need to do is prove something to
yourself. Do you understand the power in your hands? Or are you just another
hurricane waiting to happen?
