Humankind already has the knowledge to make sustainable and socially just ways of living on this planet possible. But new types of design and economics are needed for anything to change.
Many people associate Henry David Thoreau with solitude in the outdoors. But Thoreau understood in the mid-1800s that there was no such thing as nature separate from humans.
Wilhem Berrouet’s impression of Columbus arriving in America.
Salon de la Mappemonde/Flickr
Our research shows that, millions of years from now, fossilised chicken bones will mark the era of human domination.
Biologists are gathering evidence of green algae (pictured here in Kuwait) becoming carbohydrate-rich but less nutritious, due to increased carbon dioxide levels. As science fiction becomes science fact, new forms of storytelling are emerging.
Raed Qutena
Infrastructure systems – roads, water treatment systems, power grid – can’t be built the same ways as in the past. What’s a better roadmap for the future?
India’s Mawmluh Cave, home of the reference stalagmite for the newly named age.
Abhijeet Khedgikar/Shutterstock.com
2018 brought the announcement of a new geologic age that covers the last 4,200 years. How do scientists divide up Earth’s timeline and what do these demarcations mean?
Many scientists believe it is impossible to ignore the human impact on the planet when defining the geological age we live in today.
Shutterstock
When it comes to the geological record, airbrushing out humans’ impact on the environment makes little sense.
‘Earthrise,’ which appeared on the cover of the second and third Whole Earth Catalog, was taken by Apollo 8 astronaut Bill Anders during lunar orbit, Dec. 24, 1968.
NASA
The Whole Earth Catalog was a blueprint for sustainability that envisioned humans living in balance with nature. Its creative spirit was welcomed in a year riven by war, assassinations and riots.
It’s time to admit the age of pristine nature is over. In its place is humanity and planet-shaping technologies, from gene editing to climate engineering. Earth Day in a Synthetic Age.
When present in the lowest atmospheric layer – the troposphere, 8-14 kilometers above earth – ozone becomes a concern for human and plant health.
Wikimedia
Imagine a world ravaged by the fallout from nuclear weapons and the runaway effects of climate change. Congratulations, you’ve just imagined the Plutocene, but let’s hope it doesn’t become a reality.
An aerial shot of discarded life jackets on the Greek island of Lesvos.
Tasos Markou
In late 2015, 200,000 refugees a month were arriving on the Greek island of Lesvos. Tasos Markou went there to photograph their plight - and ended up joining the locals to help the new arrivals.
To conserve Earth’s remarkable species, such as the violet sabrewing, we must also defend the importance of science.
Jeremy Kerr
Allan and Helaine Shiff Curator of Climate Change, Royal Ontario Museum and Assistant Professor, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto