Anthropocene Metabolism - Natural Resources and Carbon Capture in the Age of Climate Crisis

Abstract

This article explores the concept ‘Anthropocene metabolism’, which refers to how the metabolism of the human body has changed during The Great Acceleration of the Anthropocene with huge consequences for domesticated animals and wild nature. Furthermore, the article explores the conditions for the metabolic processes of the body and the natural resources that go into providing food for the planet's eight billion inhabitants. The infrastructure around the consumption of food is shown to have been made possible by a vast and globalised ‘Anthropocene arena’, defined by a huge dependency on fossil fuels. The article thereafter explores the climate crisis as a hybrid crisis and argues that the shift to a plant-based diet could reduce the environmental impact of our global metabolism and thereby free agricultural land for re-wilding and re-forestation, allowing for massive carbon capture. Finally, it is assessed how the reforestation of approximately 28 million square kilometres would be able to mitigate climate change.

Received: 15 December 2023 | Revised: 26 February 2024 | Accepted: 20 June 2024

Conflicts of Interest

The author declares that he has no conflicts of interest to this work.

Data Availability Statement

Data available on request from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Author Contribution Statement

Asmund Havsteen-Mikkelsen: Conceptualization, Methodology, Investigation, Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing.