Article Type : Research Article
Authors : Marcos Aurélio Gomes da Silva
Keywords : Anthropocene; Geology; Ecology
In recent decades, man has become a
geological force, competing with natural forces in the impact and modification
of the Earth system. The term Anthropocene was proposed by scientists Paul
Crutzen and Eugene F. Stoermer, in 2000, to describe this new time and
emphasize the preponderant role of man in geology and ecology.
There is no
doubt that man has unequivocally and in some cases irreversibly changed the
Planet, and that Holocene concepts can no longer be used to describe trends in
chemical and biological variables and the future of the Earth system as a
whole. Tomorrow depends, to a great extent, on actions to optimize the
relationship between man and the environment. This, then, is the moment we find
ourselves in today: the Epoch of Humans. The one in which Homo sapiens finds
that civilization has become a force of planetary reach and of geological
duration and scope. We are billions of people in the world and we continue to
multiply. From a biological point of view, it is a growth equivalent to that of
a colony of bacteria: an extremely explosive pace, in a very short period of
time. We have become planetary: today there is not a single region that is not
directly or indirectly affected by the whole of human activity. By releasing
smoke from automobiles, chimneys and fires, humanity changed the composition of
carbon in the atmosphere, causing a temperature increase of 1°C, glaciers
melting and sea level rise by, so far, 20 centimetres. Not to mention how humanity
physically altered the planet, with concrete and steel. A clear example is the
rivers: in the last decades, we have transformed the river courses of all the
hydrographic basins of the world by building 40 thousand dams. If the
reservoirs of all these dams were placed side by side, we would have a flooded
area equivalent to the State of Bahia. In an article published in the bulletin
of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Program, Crutzen defended his thesis
by saying that the rate of urbanization has increased tenfold in the last
century and that, in a few generations, humanity will extinguish the fossil
fuels generated over the last hundreds of millions of years. The text had an
almost immediate repercussion among geologists. Scientist Andrew Gale of the
University of Portsmouth, a member of the Geological Society of London, told
The Times newspaper that he agrees with the argument of the chemist and his
fellow geologists. According to him, human activities have become the main
force behind the great changes in topography and climate. According to him, you
cannot have 6.5 billion people living on a planet the size of ours and exploit
every possible resource without causing gigantic changes in the physical,
chemical and biological environments, which will be dramatically reflected in
our geological record.