The Proposed Epoch That Begins With Human Activity

" The Anthropocene"

By Bonolo Mokwele Meso 

We are one, we are all  part of the circle of life . 

Have you ever stopped and wondered what our world would be like without the birds roaming up in the skies ? How many birds do you actually see on a daily basis ? With that said  how often do you see birds in flocks migrating to far and distant lands for hibernation, or whatever they do when they migrate seasonally?  Sadly hardly ever, could this be because human beings have changed planet earth permanently with the 'Great Acceleration' ? The ' Great Acceleration defined as " human technologies , powers and consumption in [of] the last 70 years that has operated as a key driver of global change " [Holm 2015; 980] . 

That seemingly simple question many have posed has sparked a debate amongst  many geologists and environmental advocates over what to call the period we live in.  One concept or  rather the recent buzzword that comes to mind with answering the aforementioned question is the word "Anthropocene", the proposed epoch that begins with human activity .As such one will seek to provide key propositions of the Anthropocene suggested by Gisli et al 2015, Stellen et al 2011 and Waters et al 2016. One will also give a personal observation on what it is like listening to birds in the Anthropocene. 

For the purpose of this blog it is necessary to firstly define what the term Anthropocene entails,before discussing its key propositions by the prescribed authors. 
 According to [Steffen et al 2011 ], the term Anthropocene  may seem a neologism in scientific terminology . However, the idea of an epoch of the natural history of the earth , driven by humankind.Meaning it's earths most recent geological time period as being human-influenced , or anthropogenic based on overwhelming global evidence that atmospheric, geologic, hydro-logic, boiospheric and other system processes are now altered by humans. 

Key propositions of the Anthropocene by authors 

Gislis et al 2013

Proposes that the notion of the Anthropocene highlights the exceptional role of humans in the refashioning of life on earth, could be as an anthropocentric construct , they add that the Anthropocene is not a result of Homo sapiens acting in isolation , but is only made possible through a diverse network of technological , cultural , organic and geological diverse entries. 

Steffen et al 2011 

Probe that the key proposition of the Anthropocene we live in is preambled by the 'Great Acceleration', stating that  the onset of the 'Great Acceleration' may have been delayed by a half a century or so, interrupted by two world was  and the great depression. The embryo of the phenomenon was evident in the 1870-1914 period. The rates refers of both the population and economic growth began to rise  above their earlier levels. The industrial Revolution gathered  pace and spread to other countries. The Great Acceleration after the world war II ? Triggered and produced a core of scientists and technologies, as well as a spectrum of new technologies (most of which depended on the cheap energy provided by fossil fuels) , that could then be turned towards the civil economy. Partnerships between government and academia became more common, further driving innovation and growth.  More public goods were converted into commodities and placed into the market economy, and the growth imperative rapidly became a core societal value that drove the socio-economic  and political spheres. Environmental problems  received little attention during much of the Great Acceleration. When local environmental stresses , such as urban air pollution or the fouling of waterways, or regional environmental problems such as the acid rain episode in North Europe and Eastern North America and Japan. 

The emerging global environmental problems were largely ignored. During the Great Acceleration the atmospheric Co2 concentration grew by 58ppm, from 311 ppm in 1950 to 369 ppm in 2000, almost entirely owing to the activities of   the [ developing countries]. The implications of these emissions for the climate did not attract wide spread attention until the 1990s. 

Waters et al 2016 

suggest proposals for making the start of the Anthropocene include (i) " an early Anthropocene" associated with the advent of agriculture, animal domestication , extensive  deforestation , and gradual increases increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide ( co2) and methane (ch2) 

The driving human forces responsible for many of the anthropogenic signatures are a product of the three linked force multipliers: accelerated technological development, rapid growth of the human population, and increased transformation of land and near shore marine ecosystems for human use . The net effect has been a loss of natural biomes to  agriculture , cities, roads , and other human constructs and the replacement of wild animals and plants by domesticated species to meet growing demands for food. This increase in consumption of natural resources is closely linked to the growth of the human population.

Soundscape of the Anthropocene 

As the first decade of the 21st century comes to a close , many of the trends established during the ' Great Acceleration ' have continued. [Steffen et al2011: 13]
Every time one entered , a new space or place setting, one recorded the different sounds of the world, so as to  test the hypothesis that we live in an anthropocenic world. An epoch that begins with human activity every morning. The constant dominant (sound) in these sound clips are the sounds of heavy human activity , people are in the constant rat race and hustle and bustle of the city. In these clips one can denote the heavy machinery at construction sites, traffic, and generators that belong to most of the shops in the city center. The general underlying tone in these clips are economic success that everyone is striving to achieve, and as such these dominant sounds can be regarded as the soundscape of the Anthropocene. 

What is it like to listen to birds in the Anthropocene ? 

According to Andrew Whitehouse the Anthropocene is still a new and largely academic term but one that relates to concerns that have been more widely felt,particularly since they were so clearly articulated by Carson. First, there is the concern that everyday experience of birds and other wildlife are under threat from everyday human activities.Second, there is a belief that  local changes and local activities can have global cause effects. 
Whitehouse opines that listening to birds in the Anthropocene is not simply a process of grieving for what is lost.[Whitehouse 2015 : 53-55]   

On Friday 08 April 2016 , I woke up early in the morning for my observations on what it is like to listen to birds in the Anthropocene. At about 3 am I heard   birds singing a nostalgic tune , a melody that resonated with me so much more than before , because I realized how much I had taken those sweet innocent melodies for granted because we are engulfed in the hustle and bustle of the fast city life.  Though i could not really identify the type of bird(s) it was ,it was quiet something listening to those birds in the still hours of the morning before the wake of the Anthropocene. 

At about 05;50 am  the beautiful melodies from the birds stopped, they stopped singing as if they know the rat race is about to start again and it would be of no use continuing the beautiful choral music because no one will be listening  to them anyway.  In my observation I would say it is as if the city mutes the sounds of the birds every morning because human activity takes precedents over the wild life/ nature. The humans have only allocated the birds with the radio grave yard shift because no one is listening. 

 How are responses to what is heard influenced by the understanding that the Anthropocene brings that humans have profoundly influenced the mix of sounds that can be heard ? 

As previously mentioned listening to birds in the Anthropocene is not  simply a process of grieving for what is lost , although as van Dooren has argued , grief and loss are profound elements of modern relations with birds on the "the dull edge of extinction," Anxious semiotics  is central to listening to birds in the Anthropocene not only directly in the face of loss but in the tensions of daily experiences that might seem, on the face of it , to be positive. Fluctuations and changes in what  can be heard lead back to possible human causes, perhaps even now our own activities. The growing desires to attend to care for birds and their ecology seem to be continually outstripped by our capacity to disrupt and endanger. [Whitehouse 2015 : 55] 


Are most of the bird sounds from a large number of bird species or only a few ?


Alarmingly most of the bird sounds are from only a few type of birds,So where have the other species of birds gone ? 


Interview with My Father : Mr C Meso 

My father was born and bred in the heart of the Limpopo province in a small village called Bouchm also known as Senwabrwana . He says as a young boy living in the village there were a number of species that were easier to find in the Limpopo province , the different types of cattle, birds and more especially the different types of  snakes that existed in their village growing up. He states that due to the increasing human developments in the village more and more species have fled their habitats. He recalls there being a whole lot of snakes both venomous and none venomous snakes which fascinated them as young boys while growing up . Now the Small village in the Limpopo province has become an economic hub  for development , more man made structures are erected meaning more animal homes are broken down ! So where do these snakes go ? When humans destroy wild land to build homes , factories , shopping malls, amusement parks, garbage dumps, even to build a visitor center, store and restaurant in a park , the land is evidently changed. The animals that once lived there , from bugs that lived in the ground to the birds that ate them, all disappear . Some can move to new home areas , but there are already other animals living there. There is not enough food, water or shelter for all of them as a result many of the animals die and this is all due to the destructive human race ! 


From the aforementioned interview one can note that there are millions of insect, fish, amphibians, birds and mammals and only one kind of human, a destructive human. This interview draws attention on how drastically our ecosystem has changed , because even certain types of snakes have become extinct. 

 In conclusion 

Our soundscape provides that we live in the Anthropocene.The notion of the Anthropocene highlights the exceptional role humans have had in the refashioning of life on earth,and which could be  deemed as an anthropocentric construct , the Anthropocene is not a result of Homo sapiens acting in isolation , but is only made possible through a diverse network of technological,cultural, organic and geological diverse entries. 
The Anthropocene is evidenced by the loss of the ecosystem and biodiversity. The human impact on biodiversity forms one of the primary attributes of the Anthropocene. Humankind has entered what sometimes is coined the Earth's sixth major extinction.  Most excerpts agree that human activities have accelerated the rates of species extinction. 







Sources consulted 

Gisli, P et al . 2013. Reconceptualizing the ' Anthropos' in the Anthropocene; integrating the social science and humanities in global environmental  change research. Environmental Science & Policy 28;3-13 

Holm, P etal . 2015. Humanitries for the Environment - A manifesto for research and action. Humanities 4;977-922. 

Steffen, W et al.2011. The Anthropocene: conceptual and historical perspectives. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society 369; 842-867. 

Waters,   CN  et al.2016. The  Anthropocene is functionally and stratigraphically distinct from the Holcene. Science 351(6269) :[sp] . 

Whitehouse, A. 2015. Listening to birds in the Anthropocene ; the anxious semiotics of sound in a human - dominated world . Environmental Humanities 6: 53-71.