58
stratospheric ozone levels increase, may not be able to avoid the threat posed by a
drop in the oceanic pH level.
When a species disappears, other living things are either directly or indirectly
affected by its disappearance. Imagine that single species as a home to several different smaller organisms; as a predator or maybe a predator of a predator to another
animal; or as prey for another that can no longer survive without it and whose own
disappearance is felt higher up the food chain.
Whether collapse happens quickly or slowly by our standards, the end is the
same, and it impacts the entire system. We cannot know the full effect of any given
species as it interacts in pronounced and subtle ways in the food chain over time. We
do know that a reduction of biodiversity makes the overall food system much less
resilient. We do know that once a species is gone, it is gone forever. In the case of
tiny phytoplankton, they form the foundation of the entire aquatic food web, and
they process as much atmospheric carbon through photosynthesis as all the earth’s
forests, jungles, and other land vegetation (Armbrust 2009). Even those who do not
eat seafood must still breathe air.
We are changing the biosphere’s equilibrium. Our actions impact the fundamental conditions supporting all life on earth. The physical and biological systems,
which have been continuously developing over millennia and on which we have
become so dependent for our own survival, are changing in complex, subtle, and
deep ways; we cannot foresee all the outcomes.
As we extract and transform natural materials, we inevitably increase what goes
to the three garbage cans. Because materials flow, the things we throw away eventually intermingle with the natural environment. Elements, compounds, and the products we make out of them flow through the air and through the water, and over time,
they penetrate and even form parts of the solid earth beneath us. The more materials
we take in and use to support the consumptive habits we have developed and passed
down through generations, the more we give back as waste.
As the global populations rise, the rate at which we have been distributing our
increasing waste into the “three garbage cans” also rise. The sheer volume of it is
producing chemical and physical changes in the environment registering at a scale
that no other single species can match. The magnitude of changes that coincide with
the inflection point in “hockey stick” graphs defines a distinct period in geologic
time—the last 200 years—the Anthropocene, in which human activity has influenced climate and environment.
The record of our global production and consumption activities that define the
Anthropocene is being meticulously captured by the earth’s gravity. Each of the trillions of particles, thrown up into the air or flowing into the water, eventually settles
on the earth’s surface. There is no way of erasing the physical evidence of our lives
and actions. Deposits of artificial compounds and increased carbon, radioactive isotopes, and plastic waste will be sequestered for eons in a thin layer of the earth’s
crust to be read as distinct from the rest of the Holocene interglacial period.
While we are alive, taking in and giving back, it is impossible to do nothing.
Even without ascribing moral labels of “good” or “bad,” our actions have consequences. When we all tacitly agree to do nothing to reduce the amount of these
3 Trash Can Living
stratospheric ozone levels increase, may not be able to avoid the threat posed by a
drop in the oceanic pH level.
When a species disappears, other living things are either directly or indirectly
affected by its disappearance. Imagine that single species as a home to several different smaller organisms; as a predator or maybe a predator of a predator to another
animal; or as prey for another that can no longer survive without it and whose own
disappearance is felt higher up the food chain.
Whether collapse happens quickly or slowly by our standards, the end is the
same, and it impacts the entire system. We cannot know the full effect of any given
species as it interacts in pronounced and subtle ways in the food chain over time. We
do know that a reduction of biodiversity makes the overall food system much less
resilient. We do know that once a species is gone, it is gone forever. In the case of
tiny phytoplankton, they form the foundation of the entire aquatic food web, and
they process as much atmospheric carbon through photosynthesis as all the earth’s
forests, jungles, and other land vegetation (Armbrust 2009). Even those who do not
eat seafood must still breathe air.
We are changing the biosphere’s equilibrium. Our actions impact the fundamental conditions supporting all life on earth. The physical and biological systems,
which have been continuously developing over millennia and on which we have
become so dependent for our own survival, are changing in complex, subtle, and
deep ways; we cannot foresee all the outcomes.
As we extract and transform natural materials, we inevitably increase what goes
to the three garbage cans. Because materials flow, the things we throw away eventually intermingle with the natural environment. Elements, compounds, and the products we make out of them flow through the air and through the water, and over time,
they penetrate and even form parts of the solid earth beneath us. The more materials
we take in and use to support the consumptive habits we have developed and passed
down through generations, the more we give back as waste.
As the global populations rise, the rate at which we have been distributing our
increasing waste into the “three garbage cans” also rise. The sheer volume of it is
producing chemical and physical changes in the environment registering at a scale
that no other single species can match. The magnitude of changes that coincide with
the inflection point in “hockey stick” graphs defines a distinct period in geologic
time—the last 200 years—the Anthropocene, in which human activity has influenced climate and environment.
The record of our global production and consumption activities that define the
Anthropocene is being meticulously captured by the earth’s gravity. Each of the trillions of particles, thrown up into the air or flowing into the water, eventually settles
on the earth’s surface. There is no way of erasing the physical evidence of our lives
and actions. Deposits of artificial compounds and increased carbon, radioactive isotopes, and plastic waste will be sequestered for eons in a thin layer of the earth’s
crust to be read as distinct from the rest of the Holocene interglacial period.
While we are alive, taking in and giving back, it is impossible to do nothing.
Even without ascribing moral labels of “good” or “bad,” our actions have consequences. When we all tacitly agree to do nothing to reduce the amount of these
3 Trash Can Living