Let's ally with the Earth: an atlas to face the environmental challenges of the present

The Earth is an ecosystem in which natural elements and living beings are connected to each other in a delicate balance. This ecosystem is a precious world heritage, common to all men: the oceans, forests, the variety of plant and animal species (biodiversity) of our planet represent an indispensable resource for human communities.

Unfortunately, ecology scholars have argued for years now that human action is progressively damaging the natural environment, endangering the existence of many species and, in the long run, the very survival of man on Earth. In the last 200 years the world population has grown at a very rapid pace and with it production activities and consumption have also grown, which have determined on the one hand the increasingly massive exploitation of natural resources, and on the other increasingly heavy forms of pollution. environmental. For this reason many scientists and experts in environmental issues have begun to use the term Anthropocene to indicate the current period, the one in which the terrestrial environment is strongly conditioned on both a local and global scale by the effects of human action, with particular reference to the '' increased concentrations of pollutants such as carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The result of human action, according to most experts, are the transformations that we have been experiencing in recent decades and of which the media around the world speak with alarmist tones: global warming, climate change, decrease in biodiversity, increasingly more atmospheric phenomena violent.

In short, it appears more and more evident and probable how the intervention of human beings - especially in the last centuries of industrialization and technological progress - has changed the balance of our planet. But in addition to acknowledging what happened, is it possible to do something to rebalance the situation? Above all: what makes sense to do and what should we avoid?

A possible path to manage the change underway is proposed by a fascinating book: "Atlas of the Anthropocene" (Mimesis, 2021, pp. 168) by Aleksandar Rankovic and François Gemenne. from the prestigious Atelier de cartographie de Sciences Po, a by now self-evident truth emerges: the attempt to control and possess the Earth typical of the last centuries of human history is simply impossible and the only result of this crazy idea is to remain crushed.

The Atlas, in fact, shows with the evidence of the data all the ecological crisis of our times, a crisis made up of climate change, erosion of biodiversity, demographic change, urbanization, atmospheric pollution, soil deterioration, natural disasters, industrial accidents, health crises. At the same time it makes us understand that in order to get out of the dangers of the Anthropocene and give life to a new sustainable era from an environmental and social point of view, we must first of all understand what is happening, we must decipher the extraordinary complexity that is around us in order to then initiate the change. A change that can neither be simple nor immediate but which for the authors of the book is not only an ecological and scientific challenge, but above all a political one. In fact, politics usually tends to consider the human sphere and the Earth as two distinct entities. The first is therefore regulated by laws and social norms, the second is the prerogative of scientific rules.

The Anthropocene, precisely because it is characterized by the impact of human beings on the planet, shows us how this distinction no longer makes sense and must be overcome. We must therefore conceive a geopolitics in which the Earth is considered as the subject of politics and its actions and no longer as an object or as a simple scenario of human activities. In short, the Planet is not the stage where Homo sapiens stages his story but it is an integral, indeed irreplaceable part of this story. This awareness, for Aleksandar Rankovic and François Gemenne, must push us to forge an alliance with the Earth, an alliance that in the long run can be beneficial to everyone. This is the most comforting message of this volume which is anything but the usual litany of emergencies and future catastrophes. It is above all a review of the construction sites that can be opened to build a different world. The age in which we live is certainly distressing, but not desperate: knowing the characteristics of the Anthropocene helps us to understand that we have many responsibilities, but even more possibilities to redefine our relationship with our Planet.