The Earth needs an emergency plan

Earth has skilled five major group extermination events associated with climate changes that have changed the characteristics of the entire planet. An article in the journal Nature, which involved researchers from the National Research Council (CSIC), analyzes the forces that "may be leading" a new change in planetary status and provides possible tools to minimize its consequences.

Epoch’s transition that the Earth has experienced throughout its history represents only 5%. The remaining time was stable. The last major change occurred some 14,000 years ago, when 30% of the land area lost the ice that covered during the last glacial period. The last ice age lasted about 100,000 years, while the transition period was extended a little over three millennia. Since then, the planet has maintained more or less stable characteristics to the emergence and development of human civilization. Researcher at the Biological Station of Donana Jordi Bascompte, who participated in the work, states that “humans are causing changes that could lead to a new planetary status, these changes appear to involve alterations in the chemistry of the atmosphere and oceans, and major disruptions in energy flows from the beginning to the end of the food chain.” The research highlights that humanity therefore is the main promoter of the circumstances that are driving this change in planetary status. The population increase is associated with increased consumption of resources and energy, and processing fragmentation of the landscape and altering the weather, ocean and land, which in turn threatens the survival of the biodiversity present.