A global environmental constitution for the Anthropocenes climate crisis

Abstract

Scientists suggest we are entering a new geological epoch called the Anthropocene. It is an epoch that signals an altogether more unpredictable and unstable period in Earth’s geological history compared to the state of relative Earth system stability, resilience and harmony that have hitherto prevailed in the Holocene. The Anthropocene’s imagery reveals the socio-ecological impacts occasioned by the ever-expanding project of human development the world over, including humans’ ability to change biogeochemical cycles; unprecedented species loss and species extinction; appropriation of non-human resources for exclusive human use; wide-spread land use conversion; alteration of evolutionary processes and outcomes; and changing the climate through the release of massive amounts of carbon into the atmosphere.