Anthropogenic metabolism
Anthropogenic metabolism, also referred to as metabolism of the anthroposphere, is a term used in
Negative effects
In layman's terms, anthropogenic metabolism indicates the human impact on the world by the modern industrialized world. Much of these impacts include
A water footprint is the amount of water that each person uses in their daily lives. Most of the world's water is salt water which cannot be used in human food or water supplies. Therefore, the freshwater sources that were once plentiful are now being diminished due to anthropogenic metabolism of the growing population. The water footprint encompasses how much fresh water is needed for each consumer's needs. According to J. Allan, "there is a huge impact of water use on stores of surface and groundwater and on flows to which water is returned after use. These impacts are shown to be particularly high for manufacturing industries. For example, that there are less than 10 economies worldwide that have a significant water surplus, but that these economies have successfully met, or have the potential to meet, the water deficits of the other 190 economies. Consumers enjoy the delusion of food and water security provided by virtual water trade.[4]
In addition, the ecological footprint is a more economical and land-focused way of looking at human impact. Developed countries tend to have higher ecological footprints, which do not strictly correspond to a country's total population. According to research by Dias de Oliveira, Vaughan and Rykiel, "The Ecological Footprint...is an accounting tool based on two fundamental concepts,
One of the major cycles that humans can contribute to that cause a major impact on climate change is the nitrogen cycle. This comes from nitrogen fertilizers that humans use. Gruber and Galloway have researched, "The massive acceleration of the nitrogen cycle caused by the production and industrial use of artificial nitrogen fertilizers worldwide has led to a range of environmental problems. Most important is how the availability of nitrogen will affect the capacity of Earth's biosphere to continue absorbing carbon from the atmosphere and to thereby continue helping to mitigate climate change."[6]
The carbon cycle is another major contributor to climate change primarily from anthropogenic metabolism. A couple examples of how humans contribute to the carbon in the atmosphere is by burning fossil fuels and deforestation. By taking a close look at the carbon cycle Peng, Thomas and Tian have discovered that, "It is recognized that human activities, such as
Impact of climate change extend beyond humans. There is a forecast for extinctions of species because of their habitats being affected. An example of this is marine animals. There are major impacts on the marine systems as a result of anthropogenic metabolism, according to Blaustein, the dramatic findings indicate that "every square kilometer [is] affected by some anthropogenic driver of ecological change".[8]
The negative effects of anthropogenic metabolism are seen through the water footprint, ecological footprint, carbon cycle, and the nitrogen cycle. Studies on the marine ecosystem that show major impacts by humans and developed countries which include more industries, thus more anthropogenic metabolism.
See also
- Dematerialization (economics)
- Industrial metabolism
- Social metabolism
- Urban metabolism
- Information metabolism
- Earth's energy budget
- World energy supply and consumption
- Noosphere
- Technosphere
- Collective consciousness
- Syndemic
References
- ISBN 0-471-97796-9)
- ^ Müller, D.B., et al. 2013. Carbon emissions of infrastructure development. Environmental Science and Technology. 47(20) 11739-11746.
- ^ Rosales, J. (2008). Economic Growth, Climate Change, Biodiversity Loss: Distributive Justice for the Global North and South. Conservation Biology, 22(6), 1409-1417.
- ^ Allan, J. (2009). Virtual Water in the Real World. Conservation Biology, 23(5), 1331-1332.
- ^ Dias de Oliveira, M. E., Vaughan, B. E., & Rykiel, E. (2005). Ethanol as Fuel: Energy, Carbon Dioxide Balances, and Ecological Footprint. Bioscience, 55(7), 593-602.
- ^ Gruber, N. Galloway, J.N. (2008). An Earth-system perspective of the global nitrogen cycle. Nature, 451, 293-296.
- ^ Peng, Y., Thomas, S. C., & Tian, D. (2008). Forest management and soil respiration: Implications for carbon sequestration. Environmental Reviews, 1693-111.
- ^ Blaustein, R. (2008). Global Human Impacts. Bioscience, 58(4), 376.
Further reading
- Baccini, Peter and Brunner, Paul H., Metabolism of the Anthroposphere, Springer, 1991, Heidelberg, Berlin, New York, (ISBN 978-0-262-01665-0.