title: The anthropocene: from global change to planetary stewardship.
abstract: Over the past century, the total material wealth of humanity has been enhanced. However, in the twenty-first century, we face scarcity in critical resources, the degradation of ecosystem services, and the erosion of the planet's capability to absorb our wastes. Equity issues remain stubbornly difficult to solve. This situation is novel in its speed, its global scale and its threat to the resilience of the Earth System. The advent of the Anthropence, the time interval in which human activities now rival global geophysical processes, suggests that we need to fundamentally alter our relationship with the planet we inhabit. Many approaches could be adopted, ranging from geoengineering solutions that purposefully manipulate parts of the Earth System to becoming active stewards of our own life support system. The Anthropocene is a reminder that the Holocene, during which complex human societies have developed, has been a stable, accommodating environment and is the only state of the Earth System that we know for sure can support contemporary society. The need to achieve effective planetary stewardship is urgent. As we go further into the Anthropocene, we risk driving the Earth System onto a trajectory toward more hostile states from which we cannot easily return.
authors.affiliation: ANU Climate Change Institute, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia. will.steffen@anu.edu.au
authors.forename: Will
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Steffen
authors.forename: Asa
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Persson
authors.forename: Lisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Deutsch
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zalasiewicz
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Williams
authors.forename: Katherine
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Richardson
authors.forename: Carole
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Crumley
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Crutzen
authors.forename: Carl
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Folke
authors.forename: Line
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Gordon
authors.forename: Mario
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Molina
authors.forename: Veerabhadran
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Ramanathan
authors.forename: Johan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rockström
authors.forename: Marten
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Scheffer
authors.forename: Hans Joachim
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Schellnhuber
authors.forename: Uno
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Svedin
mesh_terms: D018534:Earth, Planet; D006801:Humans; D007221:Industry; D038622:Internationality