The Anthropocene refers to the period of the earth’s history that can
be marked by human activity impacting the overall global temperature of the earth. Since the
Industrial Revolution, particularly the 18th and 19th centuries, human society has been organized
around production and market capital. This has been the most devastating period in our environment’s
history, with growth and surplus production being facilitated by the extraction and abuse of fossil
fuels, particularly oil and natural gas.
Global environmental movements began in the Global North in the ‘60s in a bid to curtail the wanton
greed and power of large-scale oil companies. They created and facilitated lobbies and entire
ecosystems to legitimize this form of neo-colonialism, including think tanks and policy groups.
The biggest loss has been to the environment and the multitude of ecosystems on the earth that have
just vanished, including entire swathes of forests and hills. In terms of the impact on climate, an
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report has pegged the extent of this man-made
disaster at a whopping 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
The rest is unfolding before our eyes – erratic climatic occurrences across the
globe, unseasonal snow coupled with longer and hotter summers, melting of polar ice caps that is causing sea
levels to rise to unprecedented levels. Entire uninhabited islands have been wiped out entirely, and the major
habitational ones, including countries like Bangladesh and Maldives, have been forced to come up with
emergency measures with respect to the eventual flooding that is supposed to make almost the entire landscape
disappear. The concentration of greenhouse gases in the air is allowing the rays of the sun to enter, but not
letting it escape, making the earth a toxic chamber sliding into an irreversible situation.
Every business in the world has a direct correlation with climate change and emissions. Even online events
like cryptocurrencies and NFTs today are some of the biggest contributors to climate change and carbon release
into the atmosphere. How do we reverse this change? Join Utopiic to find out!