Meghalayan age – need to declare a new age.

Part II

According to the Geological time scale, the current age we are living in is the Meghalayan age, Holocene Epoch. ( Refer Part I). The need to declare a new age was because many scientists and environmentalists believed that we have entered into a new Geological phase due to the immense human impact on the earth.

Our earth is a human planet. This is because, there are many aspects of nature that are unfortunately decided by us, like building dams and determining the flow of the river, uprooting forests, affecting oceans, etc. This ecological trauma caused to the environment by humans is irreversible.

In the year 2014, author Gaia Vince published a book called Adventures in Anthropocene. This book gives us an in-depth insight into the real problems we are facing now or may face in the coming years, along with some practical solutions. According to her, “No part of this planet is untouched by human influence.”

Need for a new age:

At present every element of nature is severely affected. Some examples that justify the need for a new age include,

1)Atmosphere

The major problem of the 21st century is Air pollution. According to the latest global Environmental Performance Index (EPI), the last five countries having the worst air pollution, amongst 180 countries ranked for air quality are,
176.Nepal
177.India
178.DR Congo
179.Bangladesh
180.Burundi

Another disturbing environmental phenomenon that has been observed is the Atmospheric Brown Cloud (ABC) also known as the Asian Brown Cloud. This blanket of cloud is usually a result of, emissions due to combustion of biomass or fossil fuels, dust particles, aerosols, nitrates, sulfate, black carbon, and other man-made pollutants. It forms for a few months every year around the Northern Indian ocean and nearby areas.

The size of the cloud is maximum in the winter season due to a temperature inversion, that is, a layer of warmer air traps a layer of cool air below it. This also traps the pollutants along with it.

Some consequences of ABC include, the air becomes dangerous to breathe, resulting into many diseases like asthma, heart problems, etc, its direct effect on the Himalayan glaciers, resulting them to melt at a faster rate.

2)Snow:

There is indisputable evidence that our plant is getting warmer day by day. The reason is primarily due to human activities. The World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMC), compiles, studies and publishes detailed and standardized data related to the world’s glaciers.
Glaciers are an important global warming indicator because global warming directly affects the glaciers causing them to melt at a fast rate.
The main cause of global warming is the rapid industrialization. If not taken care of this may lead to drastic consequences like;

a] Freshwater Shortage: If the ice is melted at a rate faster than that of the accumulation of ice ( also known as mass balance), in some time there will be a drastic shortage of freshwater.
The ice caps and the glaciers hold around 68.7% of the total freshwater

b] Flooding: As the snow melts either the lakes are created, or the meltwater joins the sea making the sea level to rise. As with dams, when the glacial lake breaches, it may cause extreme floods. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the average global sea level have risen between 10 to 20 centimeters in the past century. The rise of the sea level will cause the shorelines to retract due to soil erosion and also an intrusion into freshwater making the freshwater salty and of no use. Besides this, the addition of freshwater into the ocean may affect the ecosystem of the ocean as many corals depend on saltwater for its survival.

3)Rivers:

Human actions are affecting the earth’s rivers as never before. This includes draining it, polluting it, building dams, causing the climatic change that directly affects the global water cycle, in short controlling most of the fresh water available to us.
According to scientists, humans have degraded the global rivers to such an extent that 10,000 to 20,000 aquatic species may face extinction.

4)Soil:

Another biggest environmental problem faced by us is soil erosion. Around a third of the world’s cultivable land is damaged due to pollution and erosion.
Some of the factors on which the health of the soil depends are Deforestation, that causes erosion, and Heavy use of fertilizers that degrades the quality of the soil.
This eroded soil, contaminated with harmful fertilizers then gets mixed with water thus polluting it.
To curb this, our agricultural system is in urgent need for some radical solutions like sustainable agriculture that includes organic farming. Introducing organic farming not only enriches the soil but also helps the environment.

5)Deforestation:

Forests cover about 31% of the world’s land. It plays a crucial role in providing oxygen, drinking water, food, etc. Deforestation does not only affects humans but also greatly impacts the environment.

Some of the severe effects of deforestation include,

• Annually around 18.7 million acres of forest is lost.
• The water cycle is disturbed as trees return water to the atmosphere through transpiration ( releasing of water during photosynthesis).
• Soil Erosion increases as trees protect the soil from rain and storm.
• Habitat for a large number of species is lost as specific species requires a particular environment to survive.
• 15% of greenhouse gases that are emitted are a direct result of deforestation.

Conclusion:

It is our responsibility to find a balance so that we can coexist with the environment. All life forms like humans, animals, plants, water, air, and soil are interdependent on nature for their survival. That is, even if one form is affected, others are also affected due to inter-dependency. So, by taking one step towards being environmentally conscious we can make our contribution.
Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.”
-George Bernard Shaw