GEOGRAPHY 354

The Anthropecene: Earth in the Era of Humans

Human beings have in the past been termed the greatest forces of nature. Essentially, human activities have significantly impacted the anthropocene epoch with humans dominating the overall environment (Tong et al., 2022). The increased domination of humans in as far as the anthropocene is concerned has led to loss of biodiversity and climate change. For instance, various ecosystems have been affected, and atmospheric carbon dioxide and ocean acidification concentrations have increased (Tong et al, 2022). Various assessments indicate that greenhouse gas emissions have significantly increased over the last few decades. Anthropogenic changes threaten the resilience and viability of ecosystems as well as humans who depend on the said ecosystems. According to Chu and Karr (2017), there are three ways through which human activities that can impact the biosphere. Essentially, humans can impact the biosphere indirectly (in which case they deplete living systems by altering the chemical or physical environments), or directly by depleting human life, or indirectly by depleting non-human life. Therefore,...

Humans could impact biosphere indirectly through water degradation whereby they control the availability and movement of water (Chu and Karr, 2017). In addition to physical control of water channels,...…toxic, leading to loss of marine life.

Apart from overfishing and pollution activities, humans have also been linked to excessive timber harvesting. According to Chu and Karr (2017), timber harvesting strips vegetation from the land which leads to worse floods, soil erosion, increased carbon dioxide emissions, and diminished stream and forest organisms owing to lack of habitats. The authors further suggest that soil erosion leads to depletion of organic micro-organisms. The support of plants and organisms becomes difficult owing to loss of permeability to air and water. In addition, humans cut trees so as to create space for cultivation as well as domestication of their animals - eliminating most wild animals that depend on the said vegetation as their habitat (Chu and…