Social Science: The Anthropocene (PDF)

Section III The Anthropocene SECTION III INTRODUCTION In one context, the Anthropocene is a technical term denoting that since around 1950, the human impact on the Earth has been substantial enough to leave a mark in the geologic record. The word derives from the Greek anth...

Section III The Anthropocene SECTION III INTRODUCTION In one context, the Anthropocene is a technical term denoting that since around 1950, the human impact on the Earth has been substantial enough to leave a mark in the geologic record. The word derives from the Greek anthropos, meaning “human,” and kainós, meaning “new.”64 As a result of the nuclear weapons testing in the 1950s, for example, traces of plutonium-239—an artificial element—can be found in sediment core samples.65 Other environmental changes linked to Berkner High School - Richardson, TX human activity, like higher concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere, also create unique signatures in the rock A London factory that built ships’ boilers and engines, 1863. strata, or layers of rock, that geologists examine in order Source: Dickens’s London: in pictures (telegraph.co.uk). to decide the boundaries of various geological epochs.66 In a broader context, the “Anthropocene” is linked to Since Crutzen and Stoermer introduced it, the contemporary climate change, or global warming, in Anthropocene has not only become a widely used term, both scientific and popular discourse. Additionally, but scholars in geological fields have also moved toward news reports and educational content raising awareness formally recognizing the Anthropocene as a geological of the realities of climate change often refer to the epoch. In 2019, an authoritative body of scholars—the Anthropocene. In popular usage, the “Anthropocene” Anthropocene Working Group (AWG) acting under is a term that evokes the human behaviors that are the guidance of the Subcommission on Quaternary causing climate change and the impacts of climate Stratigraphy (SQS) and the International Commission change on our world and our lives. on Stratigraphy (ICS)—voted in favor of treating the Anthropocene as a formal geological epoch beginning Section III of this guide will explain what the in the mid-twentieth century.69 Their proposed starting Anthropocene is according to scholars and then date of around 1950 corresponds to the so-called “Great will examine the causes and consequences of the Acceleration” when many of the developments that Anthropocene. Paul J. Crutzen and Eugene F. originated around the start of the Industrial Revolution Stoermer first used the term “Anthropocene” in amplified. While their proposal was not accepted by the the year 2000. For them, the term designated a International Union of Geological Sciences, the term new geological epoch, following the Holocene, that nonetheless has currency and relevance as a means of recognizes the “central role of mankind in geology and describing the era in which humans have significantly ecology.”67 They proposed the late eighteenth century impacted the global environment. as a starting date of the Anthropocene to coincide with the popularization of the steam engine and early The Anthropocene and the climate are interrelated. records of growing greenhouse gas concentrations in The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change the atmosphere.68 Historians commonly label the same (IPCC) defines the Anthropocene as “a proposed new period as the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. geological epoch resulting from significant human- driven changes to the structure and functioning of the 2024–2025 Social Science Resource Guide 37 Earth System, including the climate system.”70 The movement in relation to the Sun. While scholars do not AWG offers a robust list of phenomena associated with know exactly when the Holocene would have given the Anthropocene, many of which are climate-related: way to another ice age, the Anthropocene has disrupted that trajectory.74 According to existing natural factors, an order-of-magnitude increase in erosion the Earth would currently be headed toward a cooling and sediment transport associated with period, but anthropogenic—or human-related—causes urbanization and agriculture; marked and have set the Earth’s climate in the direction of rapid abrupt anthropogenic perturbations of the warming instead. cycles of elements such as carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and various metals together with The characteristics of the Anthropocene’s climate new chemical compounds; environmental change are also unique compared to climate history changes generated by these perturbations, during the prior years of the Holocene. A study of including global warming, sea-level rise, temperature variability over the past two thousand ocean acidification and spreading oceanic years finds that the largest warming trends during that ‘dead zones’; rapid changes in the biosphere period have occurred since the middle of the twentieth both on land and in the sea, as a result of century.75 In addition to unprecedented levels of habitat loss, predation, explosion of domestic warming, another unique feature of global warming animal populations and species invasions; during the Anthropocene is its global synchrony.76 In and the proliferation and global dispersion other words, global warming today is happening more of many new ‘minerals’ and ‘rocks’ including evenly around the globe than past climate change. Berkner High School - Richardson, TX concrete, fly ash and plastics, and the myriad During the Little Ice Age (LIA), global temperatures ‘technofossils’ produced from these and were cooler from around 1300 to 1850 on average. other materials.71 One must note, however, that cooler temperatures on average does not mean that temperatures were cooler The AWG further notes that many of these changes everywhere at once. will last for at least thousands of years and might permanently alter the Earth System.72 The idea of During the LIA, global cooling did not have the same the Anthropocene allows scholars, educators, and geographic consistency that global warming does during journalists to gather the changes that humans are the Anthropocene. The reason for this difference is the making to the Earth and the climate and speak of causes of the climate change. The LIA was caused by those changes together in a comprehensible way. The solar forcings and volcanic forcings, which had more Anthropocene consists of many significant changes to local impacts than current climate change caused by the Earth System that are happening simultaneously greenhouse gases spread throughout the atmosphere.77 due to unprecedented human activities. The sources of those greenhouse gases are linked to well-known developments in human history. THE ORIGINS OF THE The Industrial Revolution and the ANTHROPOCENE In terms of climatic conditions, the Anthropocene marks Burning of Fossil Fuels a stark contrast to the earlier years of the Holocene. The Discussion of the Industrial Revolution, beginning in the Holocene began around 11,700 years ago and is best late eighteenth century and flourishing in the nineteenth described as an interglacial period. It is merely the latest century, brings to mind large coal-powered factories in a series of many warm periods nestled between two and soot-covered workers who were sometimes still ice ages, or glacials, characterized by significant ice children. The British writer Charles Dickens (1812−70) cover across the globe. Scholars cannot precisely predict popularized this image of the Industrial Revolution when the Holocene interglacial would have ended and through his vivid descriptions of such scenes in his the next glacial inception would begin.73 The orbit of the literary works, including A Christmas Carol (1843) Earth, which influences the interaction between solar and Oliver Twist (1837−39). The term “Industrial energy and the Earth System, has led to previous cycles Revolution” was already in use in the 1800s.78 Even of ice ages and interglacials. Those cycles correspond people alive at that time recognized that machine to the Milankovitch cycles—patterns of the Earth’s manufacturing and accompanying changes in the 2024–2025 Social Science Resource Guide 38  Changes in U.S. energy consumption, 1850–2018. Source: Yang, et al., “Evolution of energy and metal demand.” Berkner High School - Richardson, TX Charles Dickens. economy signaled a major transformation in society. The Industrial Revolution has taken on a new layer Global population of humans, 1750–2010. OECD refers of significance in light of the Anthropocene. As to member countries of the Organisation for Economic mentioned previously, Crutzen and Stoermer argued Cooperation and Development. BRICS refers to Brazil, for making the popularization of the steam engine Russia, India, China, and South Africa. the starting date of the Anthropocene. Indeed, the Source: IGBP, “Great Acceleration” introduction of the coal-powered steam engine was a Scholars today are grappling with the challenges landmark moment in the history of humans burning posed by climate change during the Anthropocene, fossil fuels to produce the energy that powers our and that experience may provide fresh perspectives machines. Some scholars still argue for the importance for reconsidering how historians can tell the history of of recognizing the era around 1800 to 1850 as being the Industrial Revolution.81 In traditional narratives, foundational to the Anthropocene.79 Nevertheless, a the Industrial Revolution was a story of the human scholarly consensus has formed around making the conquest of nature and of the human capacity for mid-twentieth century, roughly 1950, the starting date perpetual growth. The conditions of the Anthropocene of the Anthropocene. This decision was influenced call both of those narratives into question as it appears by a more detailed understanding that the Industrial that humanity may now be stretching the limits of Revolution itself had a historical development. While the Earth’s natural resources and resilience. It is 1800 might mark the start of the technology that has possible that in the future, the history of the Industrial resulted in large greenhouse gas emissions, the bulk of Revolution will be less of a success story and more of a those emissions came only later.80 cautionary tale. 2024–2025 Social Science Resource Guide 39  Berkner High School - Richardson, TX Correlation of socio-economic trends and Earth System trends, 1750–2010. Source: IGBP “Great Acceleration.” The “Great Acceleration” and the Beginning of the Anthropocene Scholars have recognized that the features of the industrial world that characterize the Anthropocene have not been stable since the start of the Industrial Revolution around 1800. In fact, around 1950 the scale of human activities that altered the Earth System began to greatly increase. In other words, more people began doing more of the things that are changing the planet. Environmental historian J. R. McNeill labeled the increase that occurred starting around 1950 as the “Great Acceleration.”82 A key factor in this acceleration, McNeill notes, is the rise in the human population. The human population in 1780 around Atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide, 1750–2010. the start of the Industrial Revolution was less than a Source: IGBP “Great Acceleration.” billion. By 1930 it had more than doubled to around 2 billion, and between then and now it has nearly The decades since 1950 are unique in human history quadrupled to more than 8 billion in less time.83 in terms of how quickly and how greatly people have transformed the natural world.84 Humans left little 2024–2025 Social Science Resource Guide 40  Correlation between yearly temperatures and atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. Berkner High School - Richardson, TX Source: NOAA. trace of their existence in the world for hundreds of thousands of years before the Holocene began around 12,000 years ago. Since that time, humans have altered landscapes and built monuments that are still visible today. Yet, since the mid-twentieth century, humans have interacted with the planet on a scale that has never been seen before. Although it is difficult to conceptualize, the transformations that humans are currently driving in the natural world match or surpass the natural causes of climate change in the past. Humans are pushing the planet out of the Holocene and into a new geological and climatic epoch. Eunice Newton Foote. THE CAUSES OF THE ANTHROPOCENE is about seven miles thick, which is where the Earth’s New research continues to support the scientific weather occurs. Conversely, the higher layers of the finding that higher concentrations of carbon dioxide atmosphere, where the air is thinner, are cooling. The and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are diverging temperature reactions in different layers of causing global warming. Scholars are refining their the atmosphere could create instability. New findings understanding of how this process works and adding such as this confirm that human greenhouse gas precision to their knowledge of how human-caused emissions are altering the Earth System even as more changes are interacting with the Earth System. detailed information complicates the picture of the For instance, scientists have determined that rising relationship between rising global temperatures and carbon dioxide levels throughout the atmosphere human behavior. cause different types of changes at different layers A graph showing the correlation between higher of the atmosphere.85 Temperatures are rising in the greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere and troposphere, the lowest layer of the atmosphere that rising global surface temperatures only shows part 2024–2025 Social Science Resource Guide 41  The 10 largest oil1 producers and share of total world oil production in 2022 Ten largest oil producers in 2022 by nation. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration Berkner High School - Richardson, TX of the story of the Anthropocene. It does not explain machines. In the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, why or how humans are releasing those gases into coal has continued to be used to power electric plants, the atmosphere. To understand that part of the story, and petroleum, or oil, has been used to power machines, one must look at past human behavior in the context including automobiles. As fossil fuels are burned for of human history. It was only after mechanisms for these various purposes, carbon and other chemicals extracting and burning fossil fuels were developed within the fossil fuels that had been sitting within the that people become aware of the challenges of the Earth are then released as gases into the atmosphere. Anthropocene. It is true that as early as the mid- Once in the atmosphere, they serve as greenhouse gases nineteenth century, the American scientist Eunice and warm the surface temperature of the Earth. Newton Foote (1819−88) had argued that atmospheric water vapor and carbon dioxide could interact Geography is an important factor in the extraction of with solar rays to raise the Earth’s temperature.86 fossil fuels and their emission as greenhouse gases. Nevertheless, on a scale that dwarfed the insights of Fossil fuels can only be extracted from locations where any one individual or group of researchers, humans at they are found. Where they are used has historically that same time were building a global infrastructure depended on which regions of the world have had the that ran, and continues to run, on fossil fuels. wealth and political power to build the infrastructure for them. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the Global Production of Greenhouse Gases West—mostly regions in the Global North, including There is a complex process involved in taking carbon Western Europe and North America—industrialized stored inside the Earth and releasing it as a gas into and created cities and transportation systems that the atmosphere. So-called fossil fuels are formed from required great quantities of fossil fuels to maintain. the remains of living organisms from past geological Corporations and governments from those regions epochs. These remains are stored within the Earth, also developed the transnational infrastructure that so the carbon contained in these fossil fuels does not was required to extract and transport fossil fuels from interact with the Earth’s subsystems on the surface of wherever they were found around the globe to where the Earth and influence the climate. Since the Industrial the fossil fuels were consumed. Today, the countries Revolution, however, humans have utilized fossil fuels that sit on deposits of fossil fuels still extract them, as a means of producing energy by burning them. In while the countries that consume fossil fuels in large the nineteenth century, coal was burned to power steam quantities have multiplied. If one takes oil as an 2024–2025 Social Science Resource Guide 42  The 10 largest oil1 consumers and share of total world oil consumption in 2021 Ten largest oil consumers in 2021 by nation. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration Berkner High School - Richardson, TX Freeways and smog in twentieth-century Los Angeles. Source: Los Angeles Times example, the United States was both its top producer and top consumer in the early 2020s.87 The History of Oil Extraction The extraction and possession of fossils fuels by those who want to use them has often been a contested and An oil field in Kirkuk, Iraq. fraught process.88 The history of oil extraction in the Middle East, particularly Iraq, in the early twentieth and imperialism. In their dealings with local leaders, century offers an example of this. When oil was Western powers prioritized gaining access to oil over discovered by Europeans in the region shortly before supporting democracy in oil-rich regions.89 In the World War I, Western corporations and governments Iraqi city of Kirkuk, where oil was discovered in 1927, quickly acted to establish a means of controlling global geopolitics and British colonial influence shaped the oil. The history of oil in the twentieth century is the contours of local urban life, straining relationships intertwined with the history of European colonialism between different groups within the diverse city’s population.90 2024–2025 Social Science Resource Guide 43  U.S. sources of greenhouse gas emissions. Berkner High School - Richardson, TX Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration Map of the globe showing extent of European colonialism. Source: Vox 2024–2025 Social Science Resource Guide 44  Berkner High School - Richardson, TX Greenhouse gas emissions in Europe, 1990–2017. Source: Mariano González-Sánchez and Juan Luis Martín-Ortega, “Greenhouse Gas Emissions Growth in Europe: A Comparative Analysis of Determinants,” Sustainability 12 (2020). The ability and willingness of imperial powers to Some gases besides those produced by fossil fuels are exert force in order to secure access to oil in the greenhouse gases as well. These include methane and early twentieth century illustrates the complexity of nitrous oxide, which are released in a variety of human the human side of the Anthropocene. Even before activities, including agriculture, landfill use, coal humanity had a widespread awareness of the adverse mining, and oil and natural gas production.93 Yet, in environmental consequences caused by the burning the United States in 2020, methane and nitrous oxide of fossil fuels, the value of black gold spurred some combined for less than 20 percent of greenhouse gas people to build wealth at the expense of other people’s emissions while the burning of fossil fuels contributed freedom and economic viability.91 Seen in this light, over 72 percent of greenhouse gas emissions.94 the economic obstacles to addressing climate change today have continuity with the earlier centuries of Historic Greenhouse Gas Emissions in the Industrial Revolution. The oil industry has a long the West history of successfully overcoming challenges that We can better understand the historical context of threaten its profitability. greenhouse gas emissions in the West by considering some important features of human history over the Current Sources of Fossil Fuels past several centuries. Starting around 1500, European The burning of fossil fuels makes up the majority of empires spread around the world and created colonies global greenhouse gas emissions. The United Nations that extracted valuable natural resources and human (UN) reports that fossil fuels—coal, oil, and gas— labor that was used to create great wealth, which was comprise over 75 percent of global greenhouse gas concentrated in Europe itself. When industrialization emissions and almost 90 percent of carbon dioxide started around 1800, European nations—and nations emissions.92 It should be noted that coal, oil, and gas such as the United States—used the wealth that they are sources of fossil fuels that humans still widely had accumulated to build factories and industrial extract and utilize. All three sources are still very infrastructure. Western powers maintained relationships relevant to the current discussion of greenhouse gases. with colonial subjects to produce natural resources such 2024–2025 Social Science Resource Guide 45  Berkner High School - Richardson, TX Chart of global GDP by region in 2021. Source: Visualcapitalist.com 2024–2025 Social Science Resource Guide 46  Berkner High School - Richardson, TX Annual carbon dioxide emissions in China and the United States since 1800. Source: PolitiFact as food, cotton, or oil in colonies and transport them is not merely one of symbolic value—a value judgement to the West for consumption or manufacturing.95 The of who is “modern” and who is not; housing industrial consumption of fossil fuels and emissions of greenhouse centers within the global economic system produces gases were concentrated in the Western world, which wealth locally. Using gross domestic product (GDP) as housed the urban centers of industrialization. a marker of wealth, one can see that global wealth is still concentrated in Western countries, which benefited Although the process of Western industrialization was from industrialization for centuries.96 a global process that relied on resources and human labor from around the world, traditional narratives of the The history of global European colonialism from modernization of the world focused on developments around 1500 and industrialization from around 1800 within the West in isolation. Europe and the West came has had lasting impacts on the situation in the twenty- to see itself as modern or “developed,” while other parts first century as humans endeavor to muster a response of the world that did not industrialize were considered to global warming. In Western Europe, wealthy to be “developing.” The use of fossil fuels and emissions countries have invested in technology to reduce of greenhouse gases as a byproduct, therefore, have greenhouse gas emissions and have cut emissions.97 become intrinsically linked to perceptions of what a The United States has also cut its greenhouse gas modern nation or society looks like. The issue, however, emissions from higher levels in the early 2000s.98 2024–2025 Social Science Resource Guide 47 India emissions CO2 emissions in India by fuel type (billion tonnes) Berkner High School - Richardson, TX Carbon dioxide emissions in India. Source: BBC However, even with the economic resources that as a means of building societies that are still held up as European and North American countries possess, models of modern life. Now, as China and India have spending money to significantly address climate the opportunity to achieve those same ambitions, the change is politically difficult. Globally, the picture rules are suddenly being changed, and those nations are becomes even more dynamic and complex. sometimes blamed as the new culprits responsible for climate change.99 Such a verdict seems unfair to some. Global Greenhouse Gas Emissions Yet, at the same time, climate change is a serious matter, While the United States and the European Union have and the United States and Europe cannot sufficiently cut cut greenhouse gas emissions, China and India have global emissions alone. increased theirs. Taking carbon dioxide emissions as a marker, China has become the world’s leading emitter, The global situation regarding fossil fuel emissions is and India has moved up to the fourth place behind complex, and even the narrative that the United States the U.S. and the EU, respectively. On the surface, this and Western Europe are seemingly headed in the right situation may appear to be a simple case in which China direction while China and India are going the other and India need to take the same path as the U.S. and way is too simplistic. When one considers population, Europe in cutting emissions. But it is not that simple. the argument that India and China are now chiefly The United States and Europe used fossil fuels as a responsible for climate change falters. Per person, means of achieving prosperity for their inhabitants and China emits almost half as much carbon dioxide as the 2024–2025 Social Science Resource Guide 48  Total and per capita emissions of CO2 per year Berkner High School - Richardson, TX Comparison of the five leading carbon dioxide emitters. Source: BBC United States does. India emits less than one-seventh however, is not unidirectional. A robust understanding the amount of carbon dioxide per person compared to of the Anthropocene involves an awareness that while the United States.100 humans have impacted nature, the relationship between humanity and nature is reciprocal. Nature also impacts The centuries-long legacy of the Industrial Revolution the human experience. and deeply entrenched models of what the features of a modern nation should be are influencing people’s It is difficult to precisely identify any direct reactions to climate change today. The Anthropocene consequences of the Anthropocene or current climate has put humans in an unprecedented situation, but on a change, but evidence suggests that both the natural cultural level, global societies remain deeply connected world and human societies are being influenced to the geopolitical legacies of the past few hundred by climate change. The Earth System is inherently years. A sizable portion of China’s emissions are complex with many different subsystems interacting linked to its exports, which are still largely consumed with each other, creating feedbacks that are difficult by people in the United States and Europe.101 to anticipate or even recognize. Drawing a direct Moreover, China has only produced about a quarter of connection between climate conditions and individual the cumulative amount of CO2 emissions of Western events such as a flood or a fire can be tenuous. As nations since 1750.102 those types of events compound over a relatively short amount of time, however, scientists can begin to THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE observe potential causes in the climate that contribute to their occurrence. ANTHROPOCENE The name “Anthropocene” deliberately evokes the role The impacts of climate change on humans and the of humanity in creating a new epoch in climate history. societies we have organized ourselves into can be Human-caused changes to the chemical configuration equally fraught. We are billions of people, but each of the Earth System have led to the global warming one of us acts individually with immense complexity. that characterizes the Anthropocene. The relationship Individual weather-related events can drastically between humans and nature in the Anthropocene, 2024–2025 Social Science Resource Guide 49 change, or even end, a person’s life. Yet, gradual for generations are facing conditions that test the limits changes in temperature over decades are difficult of human resilience. In the summer of 2023, the heat for anyone to detect within the comparatively short in Iran pushed the boundaries of human capacities time span of a human life. Cultural factors such as with the heat index reaching 158 degrees Fahrenheit.106 media and social beliefs can powerfully color people’s While a packed news cycle of striking stories does not perception of the natural world, even during times of prove that such events are happening more frequently striking climatic change.103 Even when weather does or that those events are caused by climate change, strike in the most powerful ways, how people respond scientists are diligently collecting robust records from is heavily influenced by things such as communal ties around the world that do provide systematic data about and deeply held beliefs.104 Nevertheless, the evidence the frequency and severity of abnormal weather-related that the Anthropocene and changes in the natural conditions.107 While conclusions are tentative and more world are impacting human life has become nearly evidence will bring greater clarity, scientists agree that impossible to ignore. As scholars and the public the world is already experiencing the consequences continue to observe natural anomalies, scientists will of climate change.108 Three notable areas that are continue to refine our understanding of the connection particularly impactful for human societies are fires, between those events and climate change. floods, and droughts. Climate Change as Part of Compounding Fires Ecological Crises In just the past few years, abnormally severe fires While climate change, or global warming, may be have ravaged Greece, Australia, California, Canada, Berkner High School - Richardson, TX the characteristic of the Anthropocene that garners and Hawaii. The frequency and massive scale of fires the most public attention, the impacts of climate today are staggering.109 Global warming contributes to change are best understood within a broader context the conditions that have led to these and other fires.110 of changes that are happening in the natural world. Warmer temperatures amplify the dry and windy Scientists and other concerned individuals have conditions that fuel and spread fires. Other factors grouped three troubling developments together in the also play a role in fires, including practices of forest shared framework of the triple planetary crisis.105 management. Additionally, the human toll that the fires The three components of the triple planetary crisis are: exact depends on many aspects of human interactions 1) climate change, 2) air pollution, and 3) biodiversity with nature. Building housing communities deeper loss. into forests leaves those new developments vulnerable to local fires. The causes of these three events and the locations where they are felt range in scale. For instance, the Floods loss of certain animals or plants is often related to A warming climate exacerbates many of the variables, disruptions in a local habitat. Similarly, air pollution like rain and snowmelt, that contribute to flood risk. varies from location to location, and even within a Rising sea levels—the result of melting glaciers single city. Scientists actively study how the three and warmer ocean temperatures—threaten densely components are linked, but regardless of the causal populated coastal communities in the U.S. and factors that unite them, human behavior provides elsewhere in the world. According to the National a common connection. It can be helpful to keep Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), these three crises distinct in our minds and use the “high-tide flooding is now 300% to more than 900% categories to create some order amid sometimes more frequent than it was 50 years ago.”111 Sea level daunting “bad news” about the environment. rise also accelerates coastal erosion, increasing the vulnerability of communities further inland to storm Stress on Human Habitats surge flooding. If one pays attention to local and global news headlines, it seems apparent that human habitats Moving forward, people will face difficult decisions around the world are currently experiencing stress regarding land use. Will people invest in safeguarding from natural forces. Places where humans have lived their communities from new ecological dangers or retreat to new locations? Either option promises 2024–2025 Social Science Resource Guide 50  Berkner High School - Richardson, TX Damage caused by Hurricane Ian in 2022. Source: The New York Times Now, as in other coastal U.S. cities before, local inhabitants must decide whether to rebuild in areas that have been destroyed by flooding. Increased flooding amplified by climate change is expected to continue in India as well.113 In both of these regions, land use will be a factor in the damage caused by future flooding. Droughts While warmer temperatures over large bodies of water can result in more water in the atmosphere and increased precipitation, warmer temperatures over dry land can wick away what little water there is. In North America, climate change exacerbates existing susceptibility to drought in the dry Western United States. By 2022, a megadrought in the region was the worst drought in 1,200 years.114 Studies have also found that the Horn of Africa is a hundred times more likely to experience drought and the Western Mediterranean is more likely to experience heat as a Satellite view of smoke from fires in Greece, 2007. result of climate change.115 In both of these regions, as Source: NASA in other vulnerable places around the world, drought can drastically impact the viability of a region for disruptions and challenges. To take one example, human life. Water is an absolute necessity and essential in 2022, Hurricane Ian struck Florida, causing 156 to food production. fatalities and resulting in $112 billion in damages.112 2024–2025 Social Science Resource Guide 51  Berkner High School - Richardson, TX In the summer of 2021, 40 percent of the United States experienced drought. Source: Yale Climate Connections Stress on Human Life temperatures in areas that experience disrupted When the places that people live are threatened or weather conditions, such as disruptions to the polar destroyed, humans pay a price in multiple ways. Even jet stream, also pose a risk to many people, especially the experience of living in an environment that is less in populated areas that do not have the infrastructure, hospitable to humans can take a toll on the people in such as adequate heating or cooling, to mitigate impacted regions. Climate change is already adversely abnormally severe temperatures. Some of the health influencing people’s health and financial wellbeing threats posed by climate change may be less obvious. around the globe. In some cases, people are moving For instance, a 2017 report from the United Nations out of their homes and home communities because of identified five important insights related to health risks factors including climate impacts. associated with climate change: 1) Certain groups have higher susceptibility to climate-sensitive health Health impacts; 2) Many infectious diseases, including water- Many of the negative effects of climate change borne ones, are highly sensitive to climate conditions; on people’s health are obvious. The conditions 3) Climate change lengthens the transmission season mentioned above—fires, floods, and droughts—pose and expands the geographical range of many diseases; a tremendous threat to people who live in the vicinity 4) Climate change will bring new and emerging health of those phenomena. Increased heat and colder winter issues, including heatwaves and other extreme events; 2024–2025 Social Science Resource Guide 52 and 5) Malnutrition and undernutrition influenced by of greenhouse gas emissions. While many people are floods and drought.116 sounding the alarm and calling for decisive action now, others favor maintaining the status quo. Life in Financial Impacts the Anthropocene has sparked a variety of human The financial costs of climate change are diverse responses to climate change, from dread to apathy. and widespread. In regions that depend on specific The impending risks of humanity’s current course are ecological conditions for farming or fishing, a defining feature of the conversation about what we climate change can threaten the livelihood of entire should do in response to our changing climate. communities. The destruction wrought by climate- related disasters obviously impacts those hit by such SECTION III SUMMARY disasters. Additionally, the threat of future damage 6 The “Anthropocene” is a term that describes is disrupting existing systems for mitigating and a new era in climate history that recognizes overcoming disasters when they do occur. In the the central role of humankind in geology and United States, climatic conditions have been one facet ecology today. of the decision to stop insuring property in regions susceptible to fire or flood.117 When people are unable 6 The Anthropocene has been linked to the to secure insurance for their property, they are more beginning of the Industrial Revolution around vulnerable to financial ruin as a result of a natural 1800. disaster. Even if such a disaster does not materialize, 6 Most scholars today agree that the disruptions to insurance markets can cause damage on Anthropocene began around 1950 with the Berkner High School - Richardson, TX their own to the financial stability of a region. “Great Acceleration” and the start of a rapid growth in the human population and the rapid Migration rise in greenhouse gas emissions. While migration is a multifaceted phenomenon that 6 The burning of fossil fuels is the leading cause involves many different factors, climate change is of the Anthropocene and the global warming already driving many people from their homes. A that characterizes it. United States government report estimates that almost 30 million people move their homes due to extreme 6 Through European colonialism and weather events every year.118 The number of people who industrialization, Western countries in Europe choose to move or are forced to move due to climate and North America accumulated great wealth. conditions is bound to rise as long as current conditions Their success also made the robust use of fossil persist or worsen. Already in the twenty-first century, fuels a marker of the modern nation. immigration caused by war and other factors has been 6 Due to their historical backgrounds and current a source of political conflict throughout the globe. resources, countries in different parts of the The welfare of migrants is one of the most daunting world today face unique challenges in the effort challenges already confronting the world today. to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Climate change is already impacting the Impending Risks 6 natural world and the human population. It is easy to study the realities of climate change today, to see the impacts it is already having on the Earth 6 Climate-related migration is already underway System and to become alarmed about the possibilities and will likely continue to be a major factor in of where the world could go from here. Scientists are the human response to climate change moving constantly revising models of what future climate forward. change will look like depending on different levels 2024–2025 Social Science Resource Guide 53