4
1.3.1 Humans in the Ecosphere
The earth’s ecosphere, of which we are a small but disproportionately active part, is
a self-contained system powered by the sun. This interconnected network and its
support system reaches through the rock and soil under our feet, permeates the
deepest ocean waters, and extends high into the thinnest air. This system maintains
a dynamic equilibrium. It self-regulates through short weather cycles as well as
longer climate patterns. As these natural cycles and patterns shift and change over
time, life becomes easier for some and harder or impossible for others. We are one
of millions of species that have evolved, adapted, and survived as the earth has
cooled or warmed throughout the ages.
Several distinguishing behaviors make us, perhaps, the most adaptable species to
a changing climate of all life forms alive today. We think. Abstract ideas, concepts,
concerns, and plans occupy nearly every waking hour. We express ourselves. We
communicate our thoughts, feelings, and perceptions about our world and our place
in it through signs and symbols. The largest and most lasting physical impact,
though, comes from how we act and what we make.
Our collective actions physically transform the ecosphere. The things we make
persist through time to form a complex support infrastructure called the technosphere. As an artificial subset of the ecosphere, it disrupts and delays the impact of
natural forces to break apart and recycle things back into constituent elements and
compounds in forms typically found in nature.
1.3.2 Creating the Technosphere (30,000 BCE)
Over the last trillion seconds, we humans have been recording and sharing our experiences; our ancestors drew the earliest records of human activities in caves a little
over 30,000 years ago. Since then, we have formally manifested our ideas through
an increasing array of physical and, very recently, virtual media. We started in earnest only around a trillion seconds ago, setting ourselves apart from the rest of
nature by not only manipulating nature to satisfy our individual and collective
desires but also by recording the details of what and how we lived and did things
using the most durable media available to paint on the walls of caves (see Fig. 1.1).
Thus, our growing technical abilities have allowed us to become much more than a
simple collection of individuals progressing through our own purely biological life
cycles. Our species’ ambitions and appetites have grown over the millennia along
with our technical means satisfy them. We continue to invent new ways to provide
for our growing numbers. As our ability to feed, clothe, house, medically treat, communicate with, educate, and entertain ourselves increases, so does our collective
rate of taking in and giving back—with significant negative implications for us and
for the interconnected web of living beings.
1 Do Nothing: The Danger of Believing in a World Without Limits
1.3.1 Humans in the Ecosphere
The earth’s ecosphere, of which we are a small but disproportionately active part, is
a self-contained system powered by the sun. This interconnected network and its
support system reaches through the rock and soil under our feet, permeates the
deepest ocean waters, and extends high into the thinnest air. This system maintains
a dynamic equilibrium. It self-regulates through short weather cycles as well as
longer climate patterns. As these natural cycles and patterns shift and change over
time, life becomes easier for some and harder or impossible for others. We are one
of millions of species that have evolved, adapted, and survived as the earth has
cooled or warmed throughout the ages.
Several distinguishing behaviors make us, perhaps, the most adaptable species to
a changing climate of all life forms alive today. We think. Abstract ideas, concepts,
concerns, and plans occupy nearly every waking hour. We express ourselves. We
communicate our thoughts, feelings, and perceptions about our world and our place
in it through signs and symbols. The largest and most lasting physical impact,
though, comes from how we act and what we make.
Our collective actions physically transform the ecosphere. The things we make
persist through time to form a complex support infrastructure called the technosphere. As an artificial subset of the ecosphere, it disrupts and delays the impact of
natural forces to break apart and recycle things back into constituent elements and
compounds in forms typically found in nature.
1.3.2 Creating the Technosphere (30,000 BCE)
Over the last trillion seconds, we humans have been recording and sharing our experiences; our ancestors drew the earliest records of human activities in caves a little
over 30,000 years ago. Since then, we have formally manifested our ideas through
an increasing array of physical and, very recently, virtual media. We started in earnest only around a trillion seconds ago, setting ourselves apart from the rest of
nature by not only manipulating nature to satisfy our individual and collective
desires but also by recording the details of what and how we lived and did things
using the most durable media available to paint on the walls of caves (see Fig. 1.1).
Thus, our growing technical abilities have allowed us to become much more than a
simple collection of individuals progressing through our own purely biological life
cycles. Our species’ ambitions and appetites have grown over the millennia along
with our technical means satisfy them. We continue to invent new ways to provide
for our growing numbers. As our ability to feed, clothe, house, medically treat, communicate with, educate, and entertain ourselves increases, so does our collective
rate of taking in and giving back—with significant negative implications for us and
for the interconnected web of living beings.
1 Do Nothing: The Danger of Believing in a World Without Limits