The Anthropocene Epoch

The Anthropocene Epoch is the unofficial unit of geologic time compartmentalised as the time in which human activity started altering the Earth’s surface, oceans, atmosphere, and life generally. About a billion years ago, Earth was teeming with single celled organisms, then came complex life such as flowers and dinosaurs. A branch of vertebrates called mammals came, a sub-branch of which called primates, evolved frontal lobes and complex thought. One branch of these primates became the homo sapiens (humans) who possessed speech and thought. They invented agriculture, science, art, and civilisation. And it is disturbing to realise that those intelligent humans with cognitive and gossip ability of 70,000 years would go on to destroy the planet that has housed so many before us for billions of years.

We are the minority among others who are more in number than us and occupy more space than us. About 71% of the Earth is covered in water. We are the ‘Other’ not others. Speaking of water; only 2% of that is fresh and only 1% of that is accessible. The rest is trapped in glaciers. The 0.007% of the water is available to fuel and feed the Earth’s seven billion people.

We are drilling for more oil with ever more fervour, we are advocating for the exploitation of coal to maximise energy output using cheap resources at our disposal. But in reality, we are ensuring our grandchildren may not have a planet to breathe and live in.

The Arctic ice sheets are melting with ever more speed. Half of all carbon emissions humanity has ever produced were produced in the last 25 years. The rising temperatures are causing sea levels to rise, sea water is losing its ability to sustain marine life, the water belt that moves cold and hot water around the world in a 1,000 year cycle, keeping us cool, is becoming static.

Wildfires are raging due to climate change. The dark smoke and particles land on the Arctic ice sheets blackening them, which cause them to absorb more of the sun’s heat, accelerating the melting. The carbon trapped in the Arctic ice would be released as methane, which would double the speed of melting. The bacteria and viruses from millennia ago are trapped in those ice sheets. When released, our immune systems wouldn’t know what to do with them.

Science so far knows only 1% of the bacteria inside the human body. The remaining 99% remain unknown. How they would react to increasing heat and humidity is a dangerous unknown. Take a look at the case of the saiga; the dwarf-like antelope. In May 2015, close to two-thirds of its population died in a few days. All kinds of conspiracy theories arose for our lazy minds.

The deaths were caused by a bacteria called Pasteurella multocida, which had resided inside saiga’s tonsils for generations without causing any harm. But in summer 2015, those bacteria became lethal to the host. The increased heat and humidity resulting from climate change caused the bacteria to act in an unprecedented way. Life as we have known it has enjoyed normalcy due to the natural equilibrium, which is shaky now.

Scientists have proposed a mind-boggling solution to tackle the threat of climate change: polluting the air with sulphur dioxide, which will reflect the sun’s rays back and keep the earth cool, thus avoiding the planet’s warming. But there would be more acid rains, more premature deaths due to poor air quality. More wildfires. Plant growth would be negatively affected, cancelling out any positive effect from Earth’s temperature. In other words, Earth would become one cold hell. One that does not heat up but suffocates. The sixth extinction may be closer than the fifth one.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 3^rd, 2020.

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