The Human Planet

The Human Planet: How We Created the Anthropocene explores the argument that human activity has become a geological force capable of reshaping Earth’s climate, ecosystems, and future. Simon L. Lewis and Mark A. Maslin combine science, history, politics, and philosophy to explain how humanity came to exert planetary-scale influence. The authors trace environmental change from early human history through colonial expansion, industrialization, fossil-fuel use, deforestation, and global capitalism. They argue that the Anthropocene may be marked from 1610 by the “Orbis Spike,” a worldwide carbon-dioxide signal linked to the consequences of European colonization in the Americas.