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The Anthropocene is an authoritative desk-top reference work for students of geography, the environment and sustainability. Through a series of 101 interconnected questions and answers spanning ten thematic sections, the book provides a comprehensive survey of humankind's impact on the global environment from the Late Stone Age to the present day.
Unrivalled in scope, the book distills the latest research findings and scholarship across a remarkable range of topics concerning the evolving human–environment relationship. These include the broad history of human-induced changes in the environmental conditions of the planet; the major human impacts on the Earth and their consequences; and the different causes and rationales applied to understanding these environmental changes. All questions are answered succinctly and rigorously and draw on a wealth of contemporary evidence and scientific theories. The book is colour illustrated throughout, answers are fully cross-referenced and further readings are suggested for those wishing to delve deeper. For anyone seeking to understand the human-induced changes to our planet and the challenges these pose for sustainability, this book is an invaluable resource. It provides a masterly presentation of the human footprint on the Earth system.
The Anthropocene is certainly one of the most important scientific and political issues of the 21st century. This book by B. L. Turner II is fascinating, very clear, and erudite. It provides a useful synthesis of contemporary knowledge. And it does so in a particularly accessible and scientifically accurate way. It includes numerous diagrams, photographs, and charts, an index, and a glossary with many definitions. It is an indispensable teaching tool for: raising students’ awareness of how the Earth system works; researchers who are currently working to produce knowledge that will enable us to understand more about how the Earth system works; and those who are working to identify the levers for containing the dramatic bio-climatic runaway.
Introduction
Section I The Anthropocene and the Earth System: foundational concepts
Section II The emergence of the Anthropocene
Section III Human changes to the land surface/lithosphere
Section IV Human changes to the hydrosphere
Section V Human changes to the atmosphere
Section VI Human changes to life in the biosphere
Section VII The human causes of the Anthropocene
Section VIII Understanding our relationship with nature
Section IX Sustainability in the Anthropocene