Year: 2016
Type: article
Abstract: A s you read this article every breath you take in contains about 400 parts per million (ppm) of carbon dioxide, around a third more than your great grandparents breathed 100 years ago. 1 As well as leading to potentially catastrophic global warming, carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has changed the way plants photosynthesise and has also made seas and lakes more acidic, more so than they have been for the last 800,000 years. 2 The effect human activity is having in the world is on such a huge scale that, for a growing number of thinkers, Earth has entered a new geological epoch defined by human activity.Using the Greek word Anthropos (human) they propose to name this epoch the Anthropocene.This is not just about carbon dioxide emissions.Plastic, invented not much more than 100 years ago, now forms huge swirling islands in the oceans and plastic and aluminium waste, which one study refers to as "technofossils", can be found in sediments.3 One study sampled marine fish and found that more than a quarter had plastic in their bodies.4 The invention of synthetic fertilisers has 1 Go to www.co2.earth.
Author: Royle, Camilla Elizabeth
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Climate action
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2486690543