Adventures in the Anthropocene Book Summary - Adventures in the Anthropocene Book explained in key points

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Adventures in the Anthropocene summary

Name: Adventures in the Anthropocene
Rating: 4.2 (83 reviews)
Author: Gaia Vince

Gaia Vince

A Journey to the Heart of the Planet We Made

4.2 (83 ratings)

30 mins

What is Adventures in the Anthropocene about?

Adventures in the Anthropocene (2014) explores how humanity has altered the planet so radically in recent decades that a new geological epoch is said to be coming into being – we’re crossing over from the Holocene to the Anthropocene, or the Age of Man. Author Gaia Vince examines what the changes we’ve made really mean for the world. From disappearing islands to urban slums, from Mekong fishermen to ancient nomadic tribes in Kenya, these blinks tell the story of our new relationship with nature and our hopes for the future.

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Adventures in the Anthropocene
summarized in 10 key ideas

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Key idea 1 of 10

What’s in it for me? Learn how we can help humanity and our planet in the Age of Man.

If you’ve spent any time on this planet in the last few decades, you’ve probably noticed that things are changing fast. From exciting new technologies like smartphones, to hotter summers caused by climate change, to mountains of garbage piling up, there are both good and bad developments here on planet Earth.

And the changes aren’t just on the surface. We’ve altered the planet so radically, that a new epoch is dawning. Scientists call the new era the Anthropocene, or the Age of Man.

Humans are no longer just one more species on Earth. We’re a natural force equal to the volcanoes and asteroids that determined the planet’s fate in times gone by. But what do those changes really mean for all of us who live here?

In these blinks, you’ll learn about the effects of humanity’s impact on the world. You’ll see the destruction we’ve wrought in the depths of the oceans, on the peaks of mountains, and even upon the barren desert plains. You’ll discover the ways we’re reshaping our planet, how we must adapt ourselves to the new nature we’re creating, and what the future may hold.

You’ll also find out

what the consequences of an ice-free Arctic could be;
how giant mirrors could save the planet; and
why chapatis in Nepal may never taste so good again.

Humans are changing the atmosphere beyond recognition.

Ever laid under a tree on a warm summer’s day and watched the clouds drifting by? Or marveled at the stars at night? The skies above us and the air we breathe are as familiar to us as they were to our ancestors thousands of years ago.

But what we’re doing to the atmosphere these days is completely new.

The key message here is: Humans are changing the atmosphere beyond recognition.

As you may have guessed, we’re talking about pollution. It’s not that our releasing noxious substances into the air is anything unusual. Just think of the infamous London smog. However, the extent of the damage has changed dramatically.

Humans are no longer just a tiny puff of smoke on the vast surface of the earth. Today, we’re altering the atmosphere on a global scale.

This is partly because there are so many more of us now; the world’s population is already more than seven billion. But that’s not the only reason. The days of the “dark Satanic mills” of the Industrial Revolution may be long gone. Stricter pollution controls have cleared up the visible soot and sulfurous gasses that used to dirty the skies. What they haven’t got rid of is the source of the problem itself – coal power. Pollution from coal power stations in Europe alone still kills more than 22,000 people a year.

And the developing world is also contributing more pollution than ever. In China, there’s so much dirty industry that only a tiny 1 percent of the population is breathing air that European Union standards count as clean.

What’s more, people are adding their own homemade pollution to the industrial emissions.

In Nepal, for example, the largest polluter is the wood and dung cooking fires used all over the country. They arguably make for the tastiest chapatis, the popular local flatbread. But what they also do is infuse the air with a distinctive acrid brown haze.

The effects of the haze are many, from rising temperatures to frequent droughts, which result in failed harvests. And the health effects are as alarming as the environmental ones. In India alone, estimates say that, annually, almost two million people die from conditions related to the haze – more people than are killed by malaria worldwide.

The good news is that the effects need not be permanent. If all the emissions were to stop at once, it wouldn’t take many years for the atmosphere to recover.

But we all know that’s not about to happen. So the challenge for humanity is going to be to learn to live in this new atmosphere and the new climate it brings.

Dramatic changes to mountains threaten our survival.

Humans have always been enthralled by the gleaming majesty of snow-capped mountain summits. But scale any mountain today, and you’re more likely to find a trail of litter than an untouched snowy wonderland.

And, tragically, the changes are more than just aesthetic.

Our rivers supply much-needed energy, but this comes at great human and environmental cost.

Drinking, washing, fishing, sailing – from food to transport, we’ve been relying on rivers for our basic needs since the beginning of time. But in the last century we’ve also used them as a source of power. Today, two-thirds of the world’s rivers already have a dam somewhere along them – and ever more are planned.

The key message here is: Our rivers supply much-needed energy, but this comes at great human and environmental cost.

To feed our growing population in a warming world, humanity needs to make farming more efficient.

In this age of global warming, where water shortages are becoming the norm, land is becoming increasingly less hospitable for farming.

Africa is a prime example. Across the continent, there is already little irrigation and little rainfall. And with the climate changing, it’s getting ever harder for people to survive there.

We’ve transformed the oceans and now we must deal with the consequences.

The earth’s oceans are vast. We’ve explored only around 3 percent of the world beneath their surface. And yet we’ve already transformed them drastically.

We’ve built bridges over them and tunnels under them; we’ve even joined oceans with the canals in Panama and Suez. We throw our waste into them. We get food from their surface and gas and oil from their depths. And, most worrying of all, as the global temperature rises, the frozen waters of the Arctic are melting.

Climate change is destroying traditional ways of life in the desert while creating new power sources.

For centuries, nomadic desert tribes like the Turkana have been wandering the barren landscapes in the north of Kenya with their cattle, goats, and camels.

But their way of life is disappearing fast. In 2006, Christian Aid reported that one-third of northern Kenya’s nomadic peoples had been forced to leave their traditional way of life behind. Within two years, that number doubled.

We’re no longer a mere part of nature. We control it. And its future depends on us.

Ever since we learned to walk upright among the lush green grasses of the savannah, we have been gradually altering our natural environment. Whether cutting down trees or introducing new plants, hunting wild animals or creating domesticated species, we’ve put our stamp on virtually every corner of the earth.

But it’s one thing to influence ecosystems. It’s quite another to fundamentally reshape them.

Forests have never been more threatened.

Roughly half of the forests that once covered the earth have already disappeared because of human activities. If we keep going at this rate, we’ll wipe out all of the world’s rainforests before the century is over.

But what, precisely, is driving all this destruction?

Humans need to rethink their use of the earth’s mineral resources.

Humans now move more sediment and rocky materials around the planet than any natural cause – more than all the rivers, glaciers, wind, and rain of the world combined. Take coal alone; we mine around 8 billion metric tons of it each year. You could build 16 Great Walls of China with that amount of material.

But the earth’s supplies are finite.

Our age is the urban age and cities are the future.

Whether you’re listening to these blinks on your commute to work or reading at home, chances are you’re in an urban environment. In the not so distant past, as an urban dweller, you’d be part of a tiny minority. But these days more than half of all people on the planet live in cities – and the number is growing fast.

The key message here is: Our age is the urban age and cities are the future.

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Best quote from Adventures in the Anthropocene

Living in a changed climate is like living in a different world.

—Gaia Vince

About the Author

Gaia Vince is a science writer, journalist, and broadcaster specializing in the environment. She is a former editor of Nature, one of the most renowned scientific journals in the world. Her work has appeared in newspapers and magazines including the Guardian, the Times, Scientific American, and New Scientist. She also writes about science for radio and television, including the BBC.

Who should read Adventures in the Anthropocene?

Anyone who’d like to understand the human impact on the world
Global citizens who want to learn about the effects of climate change
Everyone who wonders about the future of human life on Earth

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