All things made by humans - from houses and roads to farms and mines– and the products used are known as technosphere. US Scientist
Peter Haff has coined the term technosphere.
It weighs about 30 trillion tons, as per an estimate made by the global team led by University of Leicester geologists.
The technosphere is enough to put 50 kgs on every square meter of the surface of the earth.
This is a new phenomenon which is expanding rapidly.
The technosphere refers to all of the structures constructed by humans to stay alive, on the planet, houses, factories,farms, mines, roads, airports and shipping ports as well as computer systems together with discarded waste.
Humans and human organisations form part of it too.
There is more to the technosphere than the production of mass– it also involves creation of everything from simple to complex items.
The Anthropocene concept- highlighted to showcase the impact humans have made on the planet- has provided a deep understanding of how humans have changed the earth.
In the distant geological future, technofossils could be used to characterise and date the Anthropocene
The technosphere is expanding at a rapid pace and is a new phenomenon in the planet.
Anthropocene- Defines earth’s most recent geologic time period as human influenced.
- Holds that there is global evidence earth system processes are altered by humans.
Earth system processes comprise:
- Atmospheric
- Geologic
- Hydrologic
- Biospheric
- Other systems
Anthropocene = anthropo(meaning human) and cene( meaning epoch) in geologic time.
- It is a new period either following or within the Holocene.
- Holocene is an epoch which began in 8000 BC around 10,000 years ago.
