The climate crisis. The collapse of biodiversity. Ocean acidification. The list is long and keeps getting longer. So much so that many scientists believe that, for the first time, instead of the planet shaping people, people are consciously shaping the planet. This is the Anthropocene — the age of humans, a new geological epoch.
An epoch in which human activity shapes the planet more than the planet itself shapes human activity. Although humanity has achieved incredible progress, we take the Earth for granted, destabilising the very systems on which our survival depends.
As people and the planet enter an entirely new geological epoch — the Anthropocene, or the age of humans — the time has come for all countries to rethink their path to progress, which requires fully taking into account the dangerous pressure that humanity places on the planet and eliminating the serious imbalances of power and opportunity that stand in the way of change.
As Cassius says in his famous line from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar: “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings.” “Whether we are aware of it or not, humanity makes choices that have been shaped by values and institutions and that have led to the interconnected planetary and social imbalances we are witnessing.”
The Human Development Report 2020 can be viewed at the link:
