Universal basic income and rewilding can meet Anthropocene demands

Enough concrete has been produced to cover the entire surface of the Earth in a layer two millimetres thick. Enough plastic has been manufactured to clingfilm it as well. We produce 4.8bn tonnes of our top five crops, plus 4.8 billion head of livestock, annually. There are 1.2bn motor vehicles, 2bn personal computers, and more mobile phones than the 7.5 billion people on Earth.

Scientists have concluded that we have entered a new
human-dominated geological period called the Anthropocene. 

The result of all this production and consumption is a chronic, escalating, many-sided environmental crisis. From rapid climate change to species extinctions to microplastics in every ocean, these impacts are now so large that many scientists have concluded that we have entered a new human-dominated geological period called the Anthropocene.

This dangerous new epoch ends the unusually stable planetary conditions over the past 10,000 years that allowed farming and complex civilisations to emerge. With the spectre of rapid environmental change leading to societal collapse looming, what is to be done?

Read the story by Simon Lewis and Mark Maslin from The Guardian - “Universal basic income and rewilding can meet Anthropocene demands."