Impatiens glandulifera (Himalayan balsam) is a non-native plant species that has become widespread in the UK. Observational records indicate its arrival in the early 19th century as an ornamental plant, but it did not become widespread until the post WWII interval. In this paper, we demonstrate that I . glandulifera leaves a fossil signature in sediment cores from the River Soar in Leicestershire, with 210 Pb dating confirming its primary palaeontological record from the 1930s, shortly after it was first recorded in this region, and is more persistent and abundant in core deposits since the 1960s–70s, after which it is known to have proliferated in the wider landscape. Changes in the associated pollen assemblages in the cores suggest that its spread impacts on other plants in the local community. The record of persistent occurrence of I . glandulifera in the cores can be used to correlate Anthropocene deposits between sites along the River Soar and could be aligned with the fossil signature of other non-native pollen, for example common ragweed ( Ambrosia artemisiifolia ) to provide a biostratigraphical tool for identifying and correlating Anthropocene deposits more broadly.
Automobility’s global role in providing mobility services but with adverse impacts on climate change and land use makes it a critical topic at a planetary scale. So far the role of cars has been mostly addressed from a techno-economic perspective, with complementary but fragmented insights from other social sciences. We provide evidence that understanding automobility as a sub-system of the technosphere compromising human-made artifacts and structures with impacts at planetary scale enables investigations from a systems perspective. Our empirically grounded characterization of causal loops provides insights on intervention points guiding co-evolutionary trajectories between automobility, societies, and local and planetary dynamics along different temporal and spatial scales. We systematically draw on existing modeling approaches for outlining how to model automobility as technosphere in a reduced form. We conclude that policies, measures and cultural shifts should be systematically evaluated according to their impact on car-dependent systems. Our approach offers novel insights for reorienting automobility toward pathways consistent with low planetary impact and high well-being.
In an age concerned with the future trajectory of the human-Earth system, computer modelling has come to dominate anthropocene research. Modelling has been pursued owing to the method’s capacity for synthesis, quantification, and easy integration with policy. This essay defends conventional historical methods as a means of studying the anthropocene. It argues against the growing authority of modelling by drawing on philosopher Patrick Gardiner’s The Nature of Historical Explanation (1952), which defends history against scientism while also finding affinities. Models deal in generalities and cannot grasp how events unfold in specific detail. The author does not reject modelling so much as call for analytical pluralism.
Human societies have clearly altered Earth’s land, oceans and atmosphere, and re-ordered life across the planet, marking a new interval in Earth’s dynamic history referred to as the Anthropocene. To understand the fundamental causes of the Anthropocene we need to understand how humans have evolved biologically, socially, culturally, and technologically. The structure for this framing is the conceptual framework that divides human history into five main societies: Hunter-gathering Agriculturalism, Mercantile Capitalism, Industrial Capitalism, and Consumer Capitalism. Within this framework major changes over the last 2 million years in biological evolution, energy production and technology are mapped out and discussed. It is also essential that the study of human evolution should be incorporated within the new conceptual framework of the Anthropocene. We suggest that today nothing in the science of human evolution makes sense except in the light of the Anthropocene. Incorporating human evolution within the Anthropocene provides a deeper understanding of how an African hominin with no natural weapons or defences came to transform an entire planet. It also provides a framework to examine potential impact of new technology in genetics, health and AI on the future evolution of human biology, cognition, and social structures.
There is increasing scientific evidence of the link between the changes resulting from human activities on the planet and the increase in the frequency and severity of disasters. In the face of this change, geologists warn that the stable conditions of the Holocene are behind us and that humanity is entering a new geological epoch—the Anthropocene—whose parameters are uncertain and unpredictable. The Anthropocene changes the context in which disasters occur and operate. This has important implications for disaster studies. First of all, disasters need to be reinterpreted within the changing and unpredictable conditions of the Anthropocene. This study aims to reinterpret disasters from the perspective of Anthropocene and discuss its implications for disaster policies. The Anthropocene brings many aspects such as the expansion of time and space horizons, uncertainty in cause-effect relationships, cascading effects, and unpredictable acceleration to the agenda in reinterpreting disasters. These new features of disasters render disaster management a contentious claim. It doesn’t seem possible to manage, control or prepare for disasters under the conditions imposed by the Anthropocene. Instead, it seems a more reasonable option to focus on policies that will increase the resilience of societies by transforming socio-ecological systems by utilizing the potential of disasters to trigger new beginnings.
