ABSTRACT
From the upper reaches of the atmosphere to the depths of underground aquifers, throughout the chapters of this volume we have explored the nature and extent of the human transformation of the global environment. This socio-ecological journey has seen us follow the flow of the carbon, nitrogen and hydrological cycles, the international trade in timber, the extraction and transportation of crude oil, and the transnational movement of atmospheric sulphur dioxide. Throughout this book we have also considered the extent to which the human transformation of the environment represents something geologically significant: the birth of a new geological epoch known as the Anthropocene. We have seen that the current rates of resource extraction; climate change; the forcing of the nitrogen cycle; soil degradation; deforestation; and urbanization all point to something significant going on in the nature of human-environment relations. Notwithstanding these observations, this volume has not sought to provide a definitive answer as to whether the current patterns of environmental change require a new geological designation. It is now expected that the Anthropocene Working Group of the Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy will make its formal recommendation to the International Commission on Stratigraphy in 2016. But regardless of this ruling, it is clear that the scale and scope of the human transformation of the Earth requires that we develop more sophisticated ways of understanding the processes that are driving environmental change. To these ends, this volume has sought to show the importance of combining scientific and social scientific understanding of contemporary patterns of environmental transformation. This volume has thus shown that studying the Anthropocene requires that we understand aspects of atmospheric chemistry alongside urbanization, soil leaching and global commodity markets, the nitrogen cycle and political theories of the state, global heat balances and the psychology of human decision-making.
