GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP ANTHROPOCENE

The Anthropocene and idea of Sustainable Development

The Industrial Revolution was a major turning point in human history. World GDPhas grown along with population and consumption. Scientific, technological andeconomic developments have contributed to improve the standards of life of 7billion people.

Yet, since the 1970s, we became aware of the environmental issue. Economicgrowth consumes natural resources that are limited and non-renewable, whileproducing pollution and waste. It became clear that the GDP measures the output,but not the 'externalities', costs associated with production, but imposed on thirdparties (the environment).

THE “IPAT EQUATION”

In 1971 was developed the 'equation of human impact' on environment, resultingfrom three factors:Population, Affluence Technology. Some yeas later (in 1994) Mathis Wackernel would developed the idea of 'ecological footprint' to visualize the human impact in terms of the planet's surface(biomass, energy and capacity to absorb waste).

Over the years environmental awareness increased. In 1972 the astronauts fromthe Apollo 17 took a picture of the Earth from the space, 'the blue marble', showingthe planet as a single ecosystem. The same year the first UN Conference introduced the concept of 'HumanEnvironment' for all mankind, and awareness of the interdependence among distant'ecosystems' and different 'biocycles' began to spread among common people.

It was also published the book "The Limits to Growth", dealing with the Earth'scarrying capacity, that is its limits to provide resources and absorb waste andpollution. The authors analyzed the possible trends until 2100 of five variables: foodproduction, population, industrialization, pollution, resource depletion, usingcomputer software to simulate different possible 'scenarios' concerning the long-term consequences of development. The central idea was that these trends couldinteract with each other, so that scarcity of energy or water, or excessive pollution,could affect agriculture and rise the price of food production, resulting in 'Malthusiancatastrophes'.

In 2009 Johan Rockstrom, director of the Stockholm Resilience Centre,published an analysis of 9 'planetary boundaries' (ozone, carbon dioxide andeffect greenhouse, soil, geological, chemical pollutants, ocean acidity,biodiversity) showing that 4 of them have already been crossed (red ones).