The technosphere now weighs 30 trillion tons

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The technosphere now weighs 30 trillion tons




by sen-no-sen » 03/01/17, 17:17

The technosphere includes all the structures made by humans to live on Earth. This includes homes, factories, smartphones and all products of our company. Even if the concept of technosphere raises skepticism among the scientific community, proponents of the technosphere estimate that it now weighs 30 trillion tons, or 30 trillion tons.


The technosphere is a new major phenomenon on the planet and its evolution is very fast according to Professor Mark Williams of the University of Leicester. An international team led by geologists at the University of Leicester made the first estimate of the size of the physical structure of the technosphere, suggesting that its mass reaches 30 trillion tons, or one trillion tons. The technosphere includes all the structures we have built to survive on this planet.

Houses, factories, farms, computers, smartphones, CDs and garbage.
In a new paper published in The Anthropocene Review, professors Jan Zalasiewicz, Mark Williams and Colin Waters of the University of Leicester suggest that the technosphere bubble reaches the 30 trillion by representing a mass of 50 kg for each square meter on the planet. The technosphere has been proposed by Peter Haff who is also a co-author of the paper. Humans and human organizations are also part of the technosphere, but we do not control this bubble because it has its own dynamics and energy flow. The concept of Anthropocene, a geological era that emphasizes human impacts on the planet, has provided an understanding that humans have profoundly changed the earth. For Professor Williams, the technosphere has emerged from the biosphere and the first is parasitizing the second. At present, the technosphere is a new major phenomenon with a very rapid evolution. But compared to the biosphere, the technosphere hardly recycles its materials and it will be a criterion of its future growth without being able to stop it.



https://actualite.housseniawriting.com/science/2016/12/07/la-technosphere-pese-desormais-30-billions-de-tonnes/19659/

Very interesting concept that that of technosphere.
We will also talk about technocène, the subject had already been discussed on écono. 8)
Technosphere, technocène,super-anthropogenic organizationHere are terms with which we will have to become familiar to understand the mutations in games.
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Re: The technosphere now weighs 30 trillion tons




by Ahmed » 03/01/17, 19:19

Is it you who puts in bold some passages particularly significant of the text quoted?
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Re: The technosphere now weighs 30 trillion tons




by sen-no-sen » 03/01/17, 19:32

Ahmed wrote:Is it you who puts in bold some passages particularly significant of the text quoted?


Affirmative.
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Re: The technosphere now weighs 30 trillion tons




by Flytox » 03/01/17, 20:08

It will be even more interesting without this kind of nonsense:

In a new paper published in The Anthropocene Review, professors Jan Zalasiewicz, Mark Williams and Colin Waters of the University of Leicester suggest that the technosphere bubble reaches the 30 trillion by representing a mass of 50 kg for every square meter on the planet.
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Re: The technosphere now weighs 30 trillion tons




by sen-no-sen » 03/01/17, 20:38

Flytox wrote:It will be even more interesting without this kind of nonsense:

In a new paper published in The Anthropocene Review, professors Jan Zalasiewicz, Mark Williams and Colin Waters of the University of Leicester suggest that the technosphere bubble reaches the 30 trillion by representing a mass of 50 kg for every square meter on the planet.


Could you develop?
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Re: The technosphere now weighs 30 trillion tons




by Flytox » 03/01/17, 21:02

When you travel by plane, look down, even in a "well populated" country like France, and compare the areas occupied by human settlements of all types with the rest (nature). It's not important. Giving a figure of 50 kg / m2 is a big rubbish. They must have done the math by referring to Manhattan or something. This is so wrong that we must be able to subtract the surface of the oceans (> 70% of the surface of the globe) if not more ...
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Re: The technosphere now weighs 30 trillion tons




by Ahmed » 03/01/17, 21:15

It is true that this average, supposed to be more telling than the enormous global mass, tends to dilute the reality of the phenomenon, since the direct influence of man is in concentrated form.
Beyond the image, we must recognize that this mass is heterogeneous in terms of its harmful effects and that is not necessarily observed a strict correlation between weight balance and deleterious effects ... That's why I speak of image, with all the limitations that this process suggests.

Note: this is the message I wrote while waiting for the response from Flytox and that I publish without modification.
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Re: The technosphere now weighs 30 trillion tons




by sen-no-sen » 03/01/17, 23:52

Flytox wrote:When you travel by plane, look down, even in a "well populated" country like France, and compare the areas occupied by human settlements of all types with the rest (nature). It's not important. Giving a figure of 50 kg / m2 is a big rubbish. They must have done the math by referring to Manhattan or something. This is so wrong that we must be able to subtract the surface of the oceans (> 70% of the surface of the globe) if not more ...


To the extent that its figures are published by a serious academic group (the University of Leicester in England)
I think his data is all that more correct.
To convince you:
France destroys its territory at high speed. This is what we learn from a survey devoted to the evolution of cities since 30 years published today by INSEE (1).

The numbers, sometimes, are terrible. Between 1982 and 2011, the city population has grown by 23%, gaining close to 9 million additional inhabitants. The problem is that urban space has grown much faster: he won ... 42%, from 84000 km² to 119000 km². Said like that, obviously, that can leave marble. Everything changes when we know that these lost 35000 km² correspond to the equivalent of ... seven French departments. It is as if, within a generation, we have collectively concreted the equivalent of Ariège, Haute-Loire, Jura, Bouches-du-Rhône, Lozère, Mayenne and Lot!


http://www.lexpress.fr/region/alerte-la-france-a-detruit-l-equivalent-de-7-departements-en-trente-ans_1671394.html


Every seven years in France, the equivalent of the surface of a department is poured ... under the concrete. Thousands of hectares of green space and agricultural land are disappearing in favor of subdivisions, industrial and commercial zones, and road infrastructures. While the government has committed to build 500000 new homes per year by 2017 under the Duflot law, the National Federation of allotment gardens and collective (FNJFC) and the Union of companies for the protection of gardens (UPJ) yesterday called the minister (ecologist) Housing, fearing that nature is the big loser of this accelerated urbanization.

http://www.leparisien.fr/espace-premium/air-du-temps/la-france-trop-betonnee-01-06-2013-2855393.php

For exemple,The empire state building represents a mass of nearly 365 000 tons (so 7million surface m2 is 50kg by m2 ladle) ... and it is only a building is not much compared to a highway , a city or a megalopolis ...


The article of science and future:
The weight of humanity: 30.000 billion tons
An international team has evaluated the weight of all constructions made by humans, from large buildings to waste.

http://www.sciencesetavenir.fr/nature-environnement/le-poids-de-l-ensemble-de-constructions-humaines-ou-technosphere-est-estime-a-30-000-milliards-de-tonnes_108581
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Re: The technosphere now weighs 30 trillion tons




by Janic » 04/01/17, 10:38

it is consecutive to the population growth and the figures must hardly differ from those of 10 centuries, per inhabitant. And all that is recyclable over the centuries that come in case of human decline. More serious is the emptying of the oil pockets that are likely to remember the order in the coming periods with rising temperatures and drying out, whatever their origins
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Re: The technosphere now weighs 30 trillion tons




by sen-no-sen » 04/01/17, 10:56

For those who would like more information about the calculations the study (in english) is available here:
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/2053019616677743
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