ANU Climate Change Institute, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia.
Ambio. 2011 Nov;40(7):739-61. doi: 10.1007/s13280-011-0185-x.
Over the past century, the total material wealth of humanity has been enhanced. However, in the twenty-first century, we face scarcity in critical resources, the degradation of ecosystem services, and the erosion of the planet's capability to absorb our wastes. Equity issues remain stubbornly difficult to solve. This situation is novel in its speed, its global scale and its threat to the resilience of the Earth System. The advent of the Anthropence, the time interval in which human activities now rival global geophysical processes, suggests that we need to fundamentally alter our relationship with the planet we inhabit. Many approaches could be adopted, ranging from geoengineering solutions that purposefully manipulate parts of the Earth System to becoming active stewards of our own life support system. The Anthropocene is a reminder that the Holocene, during which complex human societies have developed, has been a stable, accommodating environment and is the only state of the Earth System that we know for sure can support contemporary society. The need to achieve effective planetary stewardship is urgent. As we go further into the Anthropocene, we risk driving the Earth System onto a trajectory toward more hostile states from which we cannot easily return.
在过去的一个世纪里，人类的物质财富总量得到了提升。然而，在 21 世纪，我们面临着关键资源的稀缺、生态系统服务的退化以及地球吸收废物能力的削弱。公平问题仍然难以解决。这种情况在速度、全球规模及其对地球系统弹性的威胁方面都是前所未有的。人类世的出现，即人类活动现在与全球地球物理过程相媲美的时间间隔，表明我们需要从根本上改变我们与所居住星球的关系。可以采取许多方法，从有目的地操纵地球系统某些部分的地球工程解决方案，到成为我们自己生命支持系统的积极管理者。人类世提醒我们，在全新世期间，复杂的人类社会已经发展起来，这是一个稳定、适宜的环境，而且是我们唯一确定能够支持当代社会的地球系统状态。迫切需要实现有效的行星管理。随着我们进一步进入人类世，我们有可能将地球系统推向一个更具敌意的轨道，而我们很难从中轻易恢复。
