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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHumanity’s epic planetary facelift: Climate change, mass extinction and the uncertain future of life
11/15/2014
Salon talks to science journalist Gaia Vince about life on a transformed planet
The Anthropocene: Dont worry about trying to pronounce it. Dont even worry about whether or not geologists decide weve officially entered it. This is the Age of Man: the epoch of mass extinction, of rapidly acidifying oceans and of unprecedented climate change transformation on a planetary scale, all of which weve brought on ourselves.
Gaia Vince, formerly the editor of the journal Nature and the magazine New Scientist and a current editor at the journal Nature Climate Change, has been seeing this all play out for years; for some added perspective, she took an 800-day trip around the world, encountering places where humanitys influence on the planet is already abundantly evident and where humans are trying to redirect that influence into something more favorable.
Problem-solving in the Anthropocene is a monumental task: If people arent moving mountains yet, Vince at least documents cases where theyre painting them, and, in Nepal, connecting them to WiFi. Theyre creating artificial glaciers in Ladakh, using electrical currents to restore coral reefs in Bali and, back in New Jersey, trying to create artificial trees that can remove CO2 from the atmosphere much more effectively than their natural counterparts.
Vince, in other words, is an optimist. Or, to put it better, she believes in humanitys power to change their world for better or for worse. The problems of the Anthropocene may be dire, and theyre definitely unequal, she tells Salon, but we have innovation on our side.
http://www.salon.com/2014/11/15/humanitys_epic_planetary_facelift_climate_change_mass_extinction_and_the_uncertain_future_of_life_on_earth/
RiverLover
(7,830 posts)deutsey
(20,166 posts)But I was prepared to read another gloom-and-doom account of the bleak, nightmare existence in store for my children and the next generation.
Your excerpt, however, surprised me. While acknowledging the grim challenges, it also discusses Vince's cautious optimism that there are smart, dedicated people around the world putting their heads together to try to come up with some solutions.
You don't hear much about these. Climate change is either dismissed by the right-wing deniers or heralded as the inescapable death of the human race by many on our side of the political spectrum.
Thanks for posting! I look forward to reading the article in its entirety.
RiverLover
(7,830 posts)I was surprised at some of the innovations scientists are coming up with.
I just hope the leaders of the world can somehow put this as a priority over greed & politics.
deutsey
(20,166 posts)I'm hoping we're seeing an awakening among the people that will grow to such an extent that world "leaders" will have to go along or get out of the way.