In 2023 I plan to write more about the books I read and enjoy. This was my first read of the year after enjoying Mark Maslin’s 2021 book How to Save Our Planet, which made me want to explore more of his work on the Anthropocene. Maslin and Lewis, coauthors of The Human Planet (2018), have been at the forefront of the Anthropocene debate over the past decade. This book provides a platform for them to share their views based on their expertise as geoscientists while appealing to a larger audience than their initial journal article.
The Human Planet was written to discuss the evolution of humanity and how our species has interacted with the environment - from our distant hominid ancestors in the East African Rift Valley to colonial settlers and the present-day human. The book was a response to a popular Nature article where Maslin and Lewis argued that the start of the Anthropocene should be marked by the birth of globalization, following Columbus' “discovery” of the Americas and the subsequent global exchange of goods it triggered. The widespread coverage of the article led the authors to be approached by a publisher to flesh out their argument that went against the emerging settlement in the scientific community (where ~1950 is generally preferred to mark the onset of this new epoch). The article and subsequent book are excellent at covering such a complex topic that requires a background in geoscience and Earth System Science in addition to politics, philosophy, history, and many other fields of study.
Four major turning points in human history are discussed throughout the book. The birth of agriculture, which itself gave rise to civilization; colonial expansion; the industrial revolution; and the great acceleration, the rapid upscaling of energy use following the second world war. These are each discussed in depth following a brief discussion of the historical views on something resembling the modern Anthropocene, plus the evolutionary story of how humans came to dominate the globe and advance up the food chain. The authors argue that fossil fuels are a progress trap that we need to overcome as we rely so much on a resource that causes so much degradation to the planet. The final chapters evaluate the evidence that we are in a new geologic epoch and explore the best time period to mark its origin, with the Orbis spike being their preferred candidate. They close out the book by exploring solutions to the current issues we face to restore nature and address greenhouse gas emissions - a popular choice among books that cover such overwhelming topics.
The writing finds an ideal strike of balance between being informative and not overwhelming the reader - it offers an excellent introduction to the Anthropocene for anyone interested in learning directly from prominent voices in the debate. I do think that the explanations of how geological time is divided may confuse people not familiar with stratigraphy. Unfortunately, this is an awkward topic to explain given the number of subdivisions made and the criteria used to decide on correlating between rocks and the geologic time scale - the visuals aid this but the audiobook version lacks these helpful graphs and illustrations. As a geology graduate, I am familiar with stratigraphy and how we can “read the rocks'' using their biological and chemical characteristics, however, it might be a challenge for those being introduced to the concept for the first time.
I would highly recommend this book. It covers a broad range of topics, weaving them together like the writings of Jared Diamond or Yuval Noah Hariri. One of the finest qualities a non-fiction book can have is the ability to appeal to anyone from a curious beginner to a specialist in the field; this book certainly has something for everyone.
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