"No generation has ever faced a more daunting agenda than those who will become adults in this decade and the next. [no search results for this sentence] They will have to do what we, the present generation, have been unable or unwilling to do: stabilize world population, reduce the emission of greenhouse gases [no results] that threaten to change the climate - perhaps disastrously, protect biological diversity now declining at an estimated 100-200 species per day, reverse the destruction of rainforests (both tropical and temperate), and conserve soils being eroded at a fast rate. [parts of this sentence comes from Greening the College Curriculum: A Guide To Environmental Teaching In The Liberal Arts] They must learn how to use energy and materials efficiently. [ibid] They must learn how to use solar energy. [actual quote 'They must learn how to run civilization on sunlight' which is correct as sunlight is the primary source of energy running Earth's biosphere including civilization 1 forms by converting about 1% of solar energy into primary productivity via green plants. Low-energy, low-impact agrarian civilization 2 forms may be sustainable, but there is no evidence that expansionist forms of civilization, e.g. the modern techno-industrial (MTI) form of civilization, can be beyond using solar energy for passive heating or concentrated to cook food; or by burning biomass to release embodied solar energy or indirectly via water/wind flows.] 

They must rebuild the economy in order to eliminate waste and pollution. They must learn how to conserve resources for the long-term. They must begin the great work of repairing, as much as possible the damage done to the earth in the past 200 years of industrialization. And they must do all of this while reducing poverty and egregious social inequities. No generation has ever faced a more daunting challenge. [direct quote from book, specifically all above from the first article by David Orr, Reinventing Higher Education, page 9]

In one way or another those challenges will require that we learn how to work with and within the biogeochemical cycles and life processes of the earth. The industrial mind aims to use technology to reshape the biosphere. A better approach would be to design our economies, cities, agriculture, forestry, transportation systems, technologies, and culture to fit ecological patterns and processes. To do so requires a science of ecological design that runs counter to the discipline-centric worldview and core commitments of the contemporary university and the reductionistic logic of much of contemporary science." [no search results, but like John Todd who is cited and and the rest is from David Orr.]

~ With acknowledgement to Dr John Todd [pioneer in 'ecological design'] and Dr David Orr [Professor, writer, speaker, academic, activist] for their paper on Ecological Design Arts [Orr wrote a guest essay by this title, mentioning Todd three times. I did find a note by Dr. Orr on ecological design: 'On Ecological Design, David Orr, author’s note 2010: The “ecological crisis” is the sum total of bad design with a tincture of bad intent, but the latter is not as easily solvable as the former. The emerging field of ecological design is the effort to recalibrate how we build, grow, make, power, move, live, and earn our keep so that they fit how the Earth works as a physical system. One day, that knowledge will help reshape and discipline human intentions as well. I intend the term design broadly. The U.S. Constitution and the Federalist Papers, for example, are design blueprints for the conduct of the public business. The term applies more obviously to architecture, engineering, economics, finance, urban planning, manufacturing, and education. In all of its manifestations, ecological design is, in short, the harmonious integration of systems and functions within specific ecologies and places. At its most direct and tangible, good design requires local knowledge of soils, waters, topography, biota, animals, culture, history, and much more. The result of good design is, in a word, health—both human and ecological. Practically, good design means farms, buildings, neighborhoods, cities, and entire industries powered by renewable energy and discharging no waste and integrated into wholes in which the parts reinforce a larger emergent harmony. It is, in short, the art and science of applied resilience.'].

 "The world will no longer be divided by the ideologies of “left” and “right”,
but by those who accept ecological limits and those who don’t.”  
Wolfgang Sachs, Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy, Germany [full quote 'Eventually the world will no longer be divided by the ideologies of 'left' and 'right' but by those who accept ecological limits and those who don't. Those who wish to control their own lives and move beyond existence as mere clients and consumers - those people ride a bike.' i.e. vote with their feet to get out of the consumer society and maybe plan on walking as bicycles are advanced technology even if made partly of bamboo.]

 

  "We do not see what we devalue and destroy is part of ourselves.  We do not see that we aren’t merely conditionally dependent on the oceans, rainforests, and every living system on Earth for survival; that something more important than survival is at stake.  It is our humanity.  It is our full beingness.  Love benumbed, we believe we can inflict damage without suffering damage ourselves.
Charles Eisenstein, Climate: A New Story.

["If love is truth, then the source of our apparent myopia is clear. It is love benumbed. We do not see that what we devalue and destroy is part of ourselves. We do not see that we aren’t merely conditionally dependent on the oceans, rainforests, and every living system on Earth for survival; that something more important than survival is at stake. It is our humanity. It is our full beingness. Love benumbed, we believe that we can inflict damage without suffering damage ourselves." available online]

The Anthropocene is the proposed new epoch dating from the impact of humans on the Earth’s geology, ecosystems and climate that replaces the relatively stable Holocene epoch.  Various start dates have been suggested dating from the beginning of settled agriculture some 10,000 - 12,000 years ago, the onset of the Industrial Revolution around 1750 or the Great Acceleration commencing in the 1960s. [As the video notes, the Great Acceleration commenced in the 1950s, and the variouis start dates include the use of fire technology by Homo erectus. We of the Anthropocene are the expansionist form of human that originated in East Africa 50k to 60k years ago to rapidly expand within and out of Africa as an invasive species, hence the Anthropocene began with us who are the Anthropocene enthusiasts whether wearing sheep's clothing or not.]

Watch the "Welcome to the Anthropocene" video by clicking the link:

 

[Watching maximizes distraction, so better, read and reread a transcript:

00:01 This is the story of how one species changed a planet. The latest chapter of our story begins in England 250 years ago. Fueled by coal, then oil, several brilliant inventions appeared. They ignited the Industrial Revolution which spread like wildfire through Europe, North America, Japan, then elsewhere. The great railways, then cars and highways connected people across the globe. Medical discoveries saved millions of lives. New artificial fertilizers meant we could feed more people. Population rose rapidly. But this was nothing compared with what was to come.

00:45 The 1950’s marked the beginning of the Great Acceleration. Globalization, marketing, tourism, and huge investments helped fuel enormous growth. People swarmed to cities which became even more powerful engines of creativity. In a single lifetime the well-being of millions has improved beyond measure: health, wealth, security, longevity. Never have so many had so much yet one billion are malnourished.

01:18 In a single lifetime we have grown into a phenomenal global force. We move more sediment and rock annually than all natural processes, such as erosion and rivers. We manage three quarters of all land outside the ice sheets. Greenhouse gas levels this high have not been seen for over one million years. Temperatures are increasing, we have made a hole in the ozone layer. We are losing biodiversity. Many of the world’s deltas are sinking due to damming, mining, and other causes. Sea level is rising, ocean acidification is a real threat. We are altering Earth’s natural cycles.

02:03 We have entered the Anthropocene: a new geological epoch dominated by humanity. This relentless pressure on our planet risks unprecedented destabilization.

02:17 But our creativity, energy, and industry offer hope. We have shaped our past, we are shaping our present, we can shape our future. You and I are part of this story. We are the first generation to realize this new responsibility. As the population grows to nine billion, we must find a safe operating space for humanity, for the sake of future generations. Welcome to the Anthropocene.

Production and Direction
Owen Gaffney & Félix Pharand-Dêschenes

Animation
Félix Pharand-Dêschenes
Globïa

Script
Owen Gaffney
International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme

Narration
Sarah Sherborne

Graph Design and Animation
Capture

Data
IGBA
OpenStreetMap
NaturalEarthData
Greg’s Cable Map
NGA
NOAA
NASA

Music
Earlyguard “Continuo 1”
HECO “Giants”

Commissioned by
Planet Under Pressure 2012
March 26-29, London

Scientific Sponsors
International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme
World Climate Research Programme
International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change
Earth System Science Partnership
International Counsel for Science

Commissioned for the
Welcome to the Anthropocene website
brought to you by:
International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme
Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University
SCIRO
SEI: Stockholm Environment Institute
International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change
Globïa
Earth System Science Partnership
International Counsel for Science
World Climate Research Programme

Special thanks to:
Simon Torok
Sturle Hauge Simonsen
Sarah Cornell
Ben Creagh
Anne-Marie Douchet
Louve & Isis

www.anthropocene.info
MMXII
]

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Human impact on the biosphere is now so great that researchers have identified a set of ‘tipping points’ we are in imminent danger of passing. While the overall resilience of the planetary system has managed to buffer prolonged and incremental changes caused by rising numbers of human beings consuming ever more resources unsustainably, once planetary boundaries are transgressed we are in the ‘danger zone’ of triggering large scale and catastrophic changes that occur when the converging crises start to interact and create run-away systemic breakdown or transformation.

With the Earth systems stretched to the limits, even small human-induced changes can now run the danger of pushing these vital functions of the planetary life support system over the edge causing partial or complete breakdown. Professor Will Steffen and a team of scientists at the Stockholm Resilience Centre have reviewed the current state of affairs with regard to humanity’s safe operating space and the planetary boundaries we have already transgressed (2009 and 2015).

Source: Johan Rockström, Stockholm Resilience Centre.

 We can clearly see that loss of biological diversity and the increase in biogeochemical flows are in a higher risk zone than climate change, but this doesn’t mean they are not closely connected.  The IPBES (the panel of researchers reporting to the UN Framework Convention on Biodiversity Loss) show that terrestrial biodiversity loss is primarily due to loss of habitat from specialised industrial agriculture and urbanisation, along with deforestation and desertification (land system change).  The biochemical flows (nitrogen and phosphorus) are also due to inappropriate use of fertilisers in productivist farming.  These in turn are responsible for freshwater and ocean ‘dead zones’.  We will be addressing these issues and a transition to regenerative agriculture that restores habitats and biochemical flows while sequestering carbon in the living soil in module 3.

In the run-up to Rio+20, Oxfam pointed out that as well as ecological boundaries we were also transgressing important boundaries of social justice and equity, calling for a ‘Safe and Just Space for Humanity’. Poverty also drives environmental degradation as impoverished communities are thrown back on the unsustainable use of resources for survival.  

Below is a short film (4min) with economist Kate Raworth explaining both the ecological and social boundaries to which we have to pay more attention, now known as Doughnut Economics.

 

[0:03 Here's a short introduction to the idea of social and planetary boundaries. Humanity is currently using natural resources far beyond what the planet can take, and yet at the same time millions of people living in appalling deprivation. We have to tackle these crises together and it would help if we had a vision of where as we want to get to, so here's one idea that could provide a compass for the journey ahead

0:24 In 2009, Johan Rockström's Stockholm Resilience Center brought together a group of leading Earth System scientists and they came up with concept of planetary boundaries. They identified nine earth system processes like climate regulation the freshwater cycle and the nitrogen cycle which are critical for keeping the earth in a stable state known as the Holocene which has been so beneficial to humanity for the past 10,000 years.

0:49 And too much pressure from human activity, any one of these processes could be pushing into abrupt and even irreversible change, so the scientists drew up a set of boundaries under their danger zones and the area that these created they called the safe operating space for humanity.

1:06 Well, that may be environmentally safe, but it could also be deeply socially unjust, leaving millions of people in deprivation and extreme inequality. So how about adding to the picture the idea of social boundaries just as there's an environment of sealing beyond which lies unacceptable environmental degradation.

1:23 So - there's a social foundation below which lies unacceptable human deprivation. What causes deprivations has been what human rights provide the cornerstone for defining. That, and the process of redefining the Millennium Development Goals, is going to come up with the top priorities to tackle now. But in advance of that process, one indication of an international consensus around those deprivations comes from the issues that governments have raised in the run-up to the UN Rio +20 conference on Environment and development and the top 11 social concerns the governments have raised form the 11 social dimensions.

1:57 Here issues such as freedom from hunger, freedom from income poverty, and energy poverty, from gender inequality, freedom from ill health and literacy. So between the social boundaries and the planetary boundaries lies an area shaped like a doughnut which is both safe and just space for humanity.

2:17 And if global economic development, it's socially inclusive and environmentally sustainable, it would bring humanity into this space and allow us to thrive.

2:26 Rockström's scientists estimate that humanity's already crossed at least three of the nine planetary boundaries, on climate change, on nitrogen use, and on biodiversity loss. And likewise data indicate that we are falling far below the social foundation on every dimension for what the indicates are available.

2:47 So, for example 13% of people don't have enough food to eat, 19 percent of people live without electricity, and 21 percent of people live in income poverty, but the really striking story here is that ending those declarations need put no pressure on planetary boundaries.

3:03 Meeting the calorie needs of everybody living in hunger would take just one percent of the world's current food supply. Getting electricity to everybody who lives without it, without less than one percent to global carbon emissions, and getting everybody out of income poverty, would take just, what?, a fraction of 1% of global income. It's wealth, not poverty, that's putting this planet under pressure.

3:28 So there's a quick tour of the doughnut, for a global compass to help us guide humanity through the 21st century.

3:32 To find out more, you can download the full discussion paper at Oxfam dot org and I'll be blogging about the issues it raises so please join the conversation.]

[Image below modified, outer notes added.]

Source: Oxfam/Grow Observatory