“We cannot expect nature to remain in a constant condition and thus provide us with a simple solution to the questions of what is “natural” and what is desirable.”  (Botkin 1990, p 181) .  Just one of many great thoughts in Daniel Botkin’s 1990 classic: Discor... [More]

"So how did the biosphere become anthropogenic anyway?” asked an astute audience member at my 2007 AGU presentation (powerpoint).  I had just given a presentation on my work with Navin Ramankutty demonstrating that human populations and their use of land have reshaped most of the terrest... [More]

Ecologists are studying the least human parts of the most human ecosystems and the most human parts of the wildest ecosystems while favoring the Temperate zone over the Tropics (Nature News Article by Zoë Corbyn: “Ecologists shun the urban jungle”).  That’s what we&rsqu... [More]

What happens when humans finally win the war with nature and end up in charge of ecology?  A question for the future?  Think again.  In “Peak Wood: Nature Does Impose Limits”, John Perlin describes what happens when human societies, starting in prehistory, have completel... [More]

Looking for a new view of an old biosphere?  Now, you can buy a wall-sized version of our first Anthropogenic Biomes map over at Maps.com.  The map includes pictures of different anthromes and is based on the paper “Putting people in the map: Anthropogenic Biomes of the World&rdquo... [More]

Finally some good news about global change: globalization is making us cooperate!  This is no minor discovery.  Poverty, global warming, environmental degradation and biodiversity loss- all of these will only be solved when all of the people of all nations collaborate sustainably in doing ... [More]

While you are driving to work, plume of carbon drifting lazily into the sky, do you ever wonder where all of your carbon will end up?  Now, work by Simon Lewis and a large team of collaborators (Lewis et al 2009) have shown that about 1/6th of the carbon emitted annually to the atmosphere ... [More]

The Biosphere is home to all life on Earth.  Now that we humans are living in and/or using almost all of it, the future of the biosphere is in our hands.  Keeping human influence out of the biosphere is no longer a relevant conservation strategy.  At this point in history, the onl... [More]