Welcome to the Anthroposphere

The Anthroposphere refers to the human-built environment, including all the structures, infrastructure, and human settlements that exist on the surface of the earth. It is essentially the human-made world and the impact of human activities on the earth’s surface.

In this sense, the Anthroposphere is to space what the Anthropocene is to time. Just as the Anthropocene represents the point in time when human activities began to significantly affect the earth’s natural systems, the Anthroposphere represents the physical manifestation of that impact on the earth’s surface. The Anthroposphere and the Anthropocene are two sides of the same coin, representing the physical and temporal aspects of the profound influence of human activities on the planet.

Go to the Anthropocene page

The Anthroposphere includes a wide range of human-made features, such as built-up areas, roads, railways, transmission lines, pipelines, and submarine cables. Additionally, it includes croplands and pasture lands, dams, mines, oil fields, and borders, among other features that reflect human activities. These infrastructures and land use patterns have transformed the natural environment, resulting in significant impacts on the biosphere, such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and altered biogeochemical cycles.

Croplands and pasture lands (livestock) are integral components of the Anthroposphere, playing a crucial role in feeding the world’s growing population. Covering vast areas across the planet, these systems contribute significantly to food production, rural livelihoods, and global trade. One key statistic to note is that approximately 50% of the world’s habitable land is used for agriculture, with around 77% of that land dedicated to livestock, highlighting the immense scale of agricultural activity at the planetary level.

Remarkably, the global mammal biomass composition consists of 62% livestock (including cattle, pigs, sheep, goats, horses, camels, and asses). Humans, at a population of 8 billion, make up 34% of the total. All wild mammals combined, even those in marine environments, account for a mere 4% of the overall mammal biomass.

Furthermore, the Anthroposphere is expanding, with human activities increasingly encroaching on previously untouched ecosystems. This expansion comes with a growing demand for Earth’s resources, which puts pressure on the planet’s ecosystems, leading to habitat destruction, deforestation, and pollution.

The pollution problem on Earth is a complex issue involving plastic pollution, industrial pollution, radioactive pollution, and “forever chemicals” (PFAS) contamination. Plastic pollution leads to vast amounts of non-biodegradable waste in landfills and oceans, while industrial pollution results in the release of harmful chemicals and greenhouse gases. Radioactive pollution, which can persist for thousands of years, contaminates the environment and poses long-term risks to human health. PFAS, a group of synthetic chemicals, can accumulate in the environment and living organisms, causing various health problems

Plastic pollution in the ocean is a growing environmental concern, as it poses a significant threat to marine life, ecosystems, and human health. As such, it is an unavoidable facet of the Anthroposphere.

Astonishingly, an estimated 8 million metric tons of plastic waste enters the world’s oceans every year, with around 5.25 trillion pieces of plastic debris currently floating in the waters. This problem is exacerbated by the fact that plastic can take up to 1,000 years to decompose, making it a persistent pollutant. Marine animals often mistake plastic debris for food, which can lead to injury, illness, or death. In fact, over 700 marine species have been affected by plastic pollution, including endangered species such as sea turtles and marine mammals. Additionally, plastic pollution has a far-reaching impact on human health, as the toxins released from plastic waste can enter the food chain and eventually make their way onto our dinner plates.

Deforestation is a dramatic example of the expansion of the Anthroposphere within the Biosphere. Alarmingly, over 18 million acres of forests are lost each year, which is equivalent to approximately 27 soccer fields every minute. Deforestation is primarily driven by human activities such as agricultural expansion, logging, infrastructure development, and mining. The Amazon rainforest has been severely impacted, with more than 17% of its original forest cover already lost in the past 50 years. The consequences of deforestation are far-reaching, as forests play a vital role in maintaining the planet’s climate by absorbing carbon dioxide and producing oxygen. Moreover, forests are home to approximately 80% of terrestrial biodiversity, and their destruction leads to habitat loss and species extinction.

While we acknowledge that any depiction of original forests (Early Holocene state) may never be pixel-perfect, our goal is to convey the broad patterns of Earth’s transformation.

Light pollution serves as a valuable proxy for understanding the Anthroposphere and the impact of industrial operations such as mining and oil fields. As human activities intensify, artificial lighting becomes more widespread, resulting in increased light pollution that can be observed through satellite imagery. For instance, according to the World Atlas of Artificial Night Sky Brightness, around 83% of the global population and more than 99% of people in the United States and Europe live under light-polluted skies. This pervasive illumination reflects the extent of human influence on the planet and can be used to identify and monitor industrial activities.

The following are six close-up views illustrating various industrial operations and regional contrasts: oil sands development in Alberta, the stark difference in illumination between North and South Korea, oil operations in the Gulf of Guinea, the Persian Gulf, and the North Sea, and lastly, natural gas activities in Siberia.

Earth’s wilderness areas, largely untouched by human influence, play a pivotal role in supporting biodiversity and conservation endeavours. These pristine marine and terrestrial environments can be found in various locations worldwide, including the vast Amazon rainforest in South America, the expansive Boreal Forests of the Northern Hemisphere, and remote Pacific Ocean islands. Deserts and mountain ranges, while also considered wild, may not be as rich in biodiversity due to their extreme environmental conditions.

Since the dawn of the industrial era, the steady increase of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the Earth’s atmosphere has had profound and transformative effects on our biosphere. The burning of fossil fuels, deforestation, and various industrial processes have resulted in a marked surge in CO2 emissions, raising atmospheric concentrations from approximately 280 parts per million (ppm) in the pre-industrial era to over 420 ppm by 2023. This increase of around 48% has amplified the natural greenhouse effect, driving global temperatures to rise by approximately 1.2°C above pre-industrial levels and exacerbating the impacts of climate change.

Consequently, our biosphere is experiencing widespread ecological disruptions, such as shifting habitats, altered species distributions, and the loss of biodiversity, with recent estimates suggesting that up to one million species face extinction. Furthermore, the heightened CO2 levels have accelerated ocean acidification, with the average pH of ocean surface waters having decreased by 0.1 units since the industrial revolution, threatening the survival of marine ecosystems and jeopardising the critical ecological balance that sustains life on our planet.

It can be posited that the Anthroposphere surpasses Earth’s limits, encompassing both low-orbit satellites and geostationary satellites that orbit our world. Additionally, it extends to the International Space Station (ISS), where humans maintain a continuous presence in space. This sphere of influence also includes probes dispatched to study other planets within our Solar System and those directed towards distant star systems. Furthermore, the ever-expanding radiosphere, characterized by the dissemination of human-generated signals, showcases the extensive reach of human impact beyond our terrestrial confines.

This page serves as a continuous experiment. Our aim is not to dishearten anyone. We prefer to conceptualize human impact in terms of footprints and handprints, with footprints representing the somewhat negative effects we cause, and handprints symbolizing the positive ones. In the future, we intend to broaden this article by including more uplifting handprint stories that highlight conservation efforts, restoration models, and regenerative visions of our shared future on Earth.