Introduction

Many Americans live in an era of plenty.  Stores such as Walmart, Target, Amazon, and Temu are stocked with a huge variety of items.  For example, if you need a new winter coat such as those displayed in Figure 20.1, you have the option of buying one in nearly any color, material (wool, down, or synthetic), and style imaginable if you have the money to purchase it.   But what environmental cost does this massive availability of goods create, and where could we do better? This lab will focus on the complex ways that the manufacture, use, and/or disposal of human-made items impact our environment.

Anthropogenic Mass and the Planetary Boundaries

In 2001, an atmospheric chemist named Paul Crutzen proposed that earth had begun a new geological epoch—the Anthropocene, which is dominated by human impact upon the planet. While the scale of this proposal is something scientists debate (for example, arguing about when the Anthropocene began, or if human’s impact rises to the scale of a geological epoch), there is no doubting that humans have impacted the Earth in a number of ways.

For example, in a 2020 study, Emily Elhacham and her colleagues at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel quantified human-made mass (or “anthropogenic mass”) and compared it to the overall living biomass on Earth. They found that the year 2020 (± 6) was the crossover point when anthropogenic mass surpassed (or will soon surpass) all living biomass on Earth. The study indicates that “[o]n average, for each person on the globe, anthropogenic mass equal to more than his or her bodyweight is produced every week” (p. 442). See Figure 20.2 below to see a graph of anthropogenic mass compared to biomass since 1900.

Scientist Johan Rockström and his colleagues at the Stockholm Resilience Center have reacted to the idea of human impact on the planet by proposing the planetary boundaries framework, which evaluates how human actions are affecting nine Earth systems (climate change, biosphere integrity, land-system change, freshwater change, biogeochemical flows, ocean acidification, atmospheric aerosol loading, stratospheric ozone depletion, and novel entities) on which we depend. Refer to the Planetary Boundaries page for definitions of the different categories listed above. In 2023, for example, Rockström and his colleagues found that in six of the nine Earth systems listed above, we were at risk of “generating large-scale abrupt or irreversible environmental changes.” See Figure 20.3 below for an image-based representation of this work.

The framework quantitatively measures when our actions take us past the safe operating zones into areas of increased risk of unacceptable environmental change, or beyond that into high-risk territory where we might surpass “tipping points” from which the Earth’s ecosystems and the planetary processes on which we depend cannot recover. See Figure 20.3 above to observe how measures of planetary boundaries have changed over time. You can find current information about the planetary boundaries’ status at Planetary Health Check.

It is clear that the Anthropocene has a complex past, present, and future. This is our challenge to you in this lab: “What object evokes the unfolding of human-caused environmental change for you?”

Museums hire curators, whose responsibility is to tell a story through their displays. They accomplish this through a series of deliberate choices: what objects are chosen for display? What context does the audience get about the theme of a display? How are individual objects described, and how does that description relate to the major themes?

As a class, what stories do your chosen items tell about our feelings about the natural world, about human choices, and about the future of our planet?

Lab Directions

1. Select an object that has personal resonance for you.
2. Explore the relevance of this object in the context of the Anthropocene by answering the questions in the Lab Response Form.
3. Once you have completed your research and documented it in the Lab Response Form, summarize the information in your Lab Response in the format of a single (image-based) PowerPoint slide or an infographic (see examples in the library research guide). You will be asked to present your slide or infographic and your presentation should address the following questions:

• • What is your object?
  • What is the significance of this object for society? (Think about your statements about the “problem” or “need” your object addresses.)
  • Why does it matter to you personally?
  • Describe the environmental impact (both positive and negative) of one component of your object (insert research here). Use data/images as appropriate. Connect to your Planetary Boundary.
  • What can the company (and we as consumers) do better in the manufacture, consumption, or disposal of your object? Explain, using your research. Connect your suggestions to the Sustainability Development Goals.
  • What did you learn from this assignment?

4. Cite your expert sources at the bottom of your slide or infographic.

References

Elhacham, E., Ben-Uri, L., Grozovski, J., Bar-On, Y. M., & Milo, R. (2020). Global human-made mass exceeds all living biomass. Nature, 588(7838), 442–444. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-3010-5

International Union of Geological Sciences. (2024). The Anthropocene: IUGS-ICS Statement. https://www.iugs.org/_files/ugd/f1fc07_ebe2e2b94c35491c8efe570cd2c5a1bf.pdf

Stockholm Resilience Center, Stockholm University. (2023). Planetary boundaries [Text]. https://www.stockholmresilience.org/research/planetary-boundaries.html

Lab 20 Response: Museum of the Anthropocene

1. Identify and describe the object.
2. Find an ad where your object is featured. Post a link to your ad and summarize what story is being told.
3. Summarize, based upon your ad and your personal experience, what “problem” or “need” your object solves or addresses. Provide evidence to support your claim.
4. Explain the personal significance of the object you selected.
5. List the components of your object, identify the component you will focus on, and explain why you chose that component.
6. Which Earth system from the planetary boundaries framework does your object’s component best correspond with?  Explain why.
7. What impact does your object’s component have on the planetary boundary you identified above?
8. Use the library research guide to find at least 3 credible sources that provide data, history, or context for your object’s component. Be specific: list data, charts, graphs, and facts that help describe how your object’s component has changed the planet. Provide a link to each of your sources as well.
9. Explain: why are the sources you listed credible and authoritative? Refer to the author(s), format, publishers, and the date of the information.
10. Provide APA citations for each of your 3 sources. (Refer to the COD citation guide or use an online citation builder)
11. What does the company/brand have to say about the issue you identified with the object (or the component that you researched)? If they offer an explanation, what evidence do they provide to support their claims?
12. How could we make the creation, manufacture, or disposal of your object better? The reality is that the consumption of products drives an array of activities including extraction, cultivation, harvesting, manufacturing, transportation, distribution, and disposal operations that use natural resources such as plants, animals, metals, energy, and water. The choices made about how to manufacture the product and the additional resources necessary to use it and dispose of it can have various negative and/or positive environmental, social, health, and other consequences. Consider the Sustainable Development Goals. What guidelines should we follow as we manufacture, use, and dispose of this object or specific component of the object?
13. Explain the impact of your solution. Refer to your research: what data and other information can help describe what would change?

Use your answers to the questions above to create an infographic or digital poster that explains the impact of the manufacture, use, and/or disposal of your item on the environment as is most relevant.  Your infographic or poster should tell the story of what your object is (questions 1-4 from the lab response form), what impact your item has on the environment (questions 5-11 from the lab response form) and how we might lessen the environmental impact of your object (questions 12-13 from the lab response form).

Consult the library research guide for infographic and digital poster creation guidelines. Remember that you will want to summarize and highlight information from your lab response form rather than repeating answer, use images to highlight major points, and cite your sources on your infographic or digital poster.