The Anthropocene

The Industrial Revolution that powered the great technical, economic and social transformation of the last 300 years, was itself driven by a Scientific Revolution, initiated by Isaac Newton’s articulation of the law of gravity and the three laws of motion. These are the laws that govern the behavior of inanimate objects. Newton laid the foundations for how these laws could be utilized to develop a myriad ways to harness Energy to power engines to perform work and to structure, order and control our environment to better suit our needs.

Energy – from steam to oil and electricity

That Energy was initially generated by burning wood and coal to generate steam to power steam engines.

Further scientific discovery and ingenuity saw the invention of the internal combustion engine and the burning of liquid hydrocarbon fuels to transform transport and logistics as it was adapted for use in locomotives, ships, autos, trucks, and airplanes.

Once we discovered how to utilize electricity and master its distribution, it was possible to centralize generation by using huge steam driven turbines to generate electricity at power stations. Thereafter hydro-electric generation from dams was introduced into the electricity generation mix.

Water – from wells and buckets to taps and flushes

Population growth, urbanization and improved quality of life brought about even greater demand for water. In the early days, cities were foul smelling and unsanitary because of the lack of proper sanitation and suffered from a variety of contagious diseases, such as typhoid and cholera, that were prevalent where there was poor sanitation and drinking water quality.

But what compounded the demand increase, was that the average daily per capita consumption of water in cities increased dramatically. In a rural home, toilets were a “long drop” outhouse that required little or no water and daily bathing was done using a bowl of water with a bath perhaps once a week. In cities public health requirements meant that water borne sanitation became obligatory, as did showering and bathing daily. Both increased the per capita daily water consumption by a factor of about ten.

Treatment of wastewater to remove contaminants and improve its quality before discharge also became obligatory and the first activated sludge treatment wastewater treatment process was invented in 1914 in Manchester, England.

This significantly reduced the levels of contaminants discharged into rivers and downstream lakes, dams and reservoirs, but the cumulative effects of the low-level residual contamination on water resources began to become apparent after WW2. From about that time, the problem of eutrophication and massive algae blooms, many of them toxic, in rivers, lakes, dams and reservoirs began to grow.

Food – from grow and cook your own to supermarkets and takeaways

The Industrial Revolution also brought about an Agricultural Revolution. Farm equipment and machinery powered by the ubiquitous combustion engine changed both the size and scale of farming operations. Refrigeration meant that fresh food lasted longer and could be sourced from much further away. Food processing, improved packaging (canning, vacuum packing, refrigeration and freezing) and extensive logistics supply chains meant that food grown on the other side of the world could be reliably supplied.

Transformations in food production and supply logistics in turn transformed the retail industry as the village grocer was replaced by supermarkets. Restaurants, particularly fast food chains transformed food economics as they developed their own supply chains and persuaded virtually everyone to eat the same food.

The Anthropocene – the Engineering Epoch

The 300 years since the start of the Industrial Revolution, during which time Man himself has had a major direct impact on his environment, has been recognized by naming this the Anthropocene, mimicking the naming convention for geological epochs; it was preceded by the Holocene, which in turn was preceded by the Pleistocene (the last ice age).

The Anthropocene is topical because of the debate over its contribution to climate change.

Putting that debate aside, we need to understand impact of the Anthropocene on Water, Energy & Food production and how they impact each other at what is called the WEB Nexus because each of these is a critical resource.

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