In his report Geoscience provides a needed holistic context for Earth System Governance, Emlyn Koster, PhD, a publicly-minded geologist, delves into the shift from traditional studies of separate past and present aspects of Earth history to interpreting this planet as one giant ecosystem. Its air, water, ice, land, soil and life subsystems are interconnected.
He contextualizes the recent decision by the International Union of Geological Sciences to define the Anthropocene — shorthand for humanity’s evolving disruption of the enveloping subsystems of the Earth System — not as a mid-20th-century epoch but as an intensifying critical event which began as the last Ice Age ended.
Dr. Koster argues that holistic governance of what now needs to be viewed as an Earth-Human Ecosystem in an Anthropocene context is vital to transdisciplinary efforts dedicated to building a science-based protective framework for future generations.
