Recently, I have been reading books on Antrophocene, the rise of humankind and our revolutions in the past centuries. One book in particular – Half-Earth: Our Planet’s Fight for Life, discusses the danger of an antrophocene world or rather, a world whereby we let creatures we disdain extinct and we preserve creatures or Earth habitants that we like.
Wilson emphasizes that there are many things that are yet to unravel here on Earth. There are plenty of things we have yet to discover. Millions and billions of species on this Earth are still hidden to us. How do we solve problems like extinction with Antrophocene if we are still unsure about this planet?
Yet one could argue that with the advances of technology, we might be able to stop extinction or work around it. For example, the rise of hydro-culture in plants means using chemical solutions as a way to replace natural nutrients from soil. Or the recent CRISPR technology, where gene-editing is now made possible.
So the question is, do we stay close up and refuse to believe in the capabilities of us as human, or do we open up to technology advances and scientific discoveries?
I personally think a balance is required here. We have to be conscious of the disastrous effect of excessive carbon footprint while at the same time walk with an open mind to a life filled with new discoveries.
I guess this also means, as much as tech experts are needed, we also need an equal amount or not more biologists and nature enthusiasts.
Where do we go from here? Indeed, billion years later and this is still an open-ended question.
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