In layman's terms, anthropogenic metabolism indicates the human impact on the world by the modern industrialized world. Much of these impacts include
waste management,
ecological footprints, water footprints, and
flow analysis (i.e., the rate at which each human depleted the energy around them). Most anthropogenic metabolism happens in developed countries. According to Rosales, "Economic growth is at present the main cause of increased climate change, and climate change is a main mechanism of
biodiversity loss; because of this, economic growth is a major catalyst of biodiversity loss." A
water footprint is the amount of water that each person uses in their daily lives. Most of the world's water is salt water which cannot be used in human food or water supplies. Therefore, the freshwater sources that were once plentiful are now being diminished due to anthropogenic metabolism of the growing population. The water footprint encompasses how much
fresh water is needed for each consumer's needs. According to J. Allan, "there is a huge impact of water use on stores of surface and
groundwater and on flows to which
water is returned after use. These impacts are shown to be particularly high for manufacturing industries. For example, that there are less than 10 economies worldwide that have a significant water surplus, but that these economies have successfully met, or have the potential to meet, the water deficits of the other 190 economies. Consumers enjoy the delusion of food and
water security provided by
virtual water trade. In addition, the ecological footprint is a more economical and land-focused way of looking at human impact. Developed countries tend to have higher ecological footprints, which do not strictly correspond to a country's total population. According to research by Dias de Oliveira, Vaughan and Rykiel, "The Ecological Footprint...is an accounting tool based on two fundamental concepts,
sustainability and
carrying capacity. It makes it possible to estimate the
resource consumption and waste assimilation requirements of a defined
human population or economy sector in terms of corresponding productive land area." One of the major cycles that humans can contribute to that cause a major impact on
climate change is the
nitrogen cycle. This comes from nitrogen fertilizers that humans use. Gruber and Galloway have researched, "The massive acceleration of the nitrogen cycle caused by the production and industrial use of artificial
nitrogen fertilizers worldwide has led to a range of environmental problems. Most important is how the availability of nitrogen will affect the capacity of Earth's biosphere to continue absorbing
carbon from the
atmosphere and to thereby continue helping to mitigate climate change." The carbon cycle is another major contributor to climate change primarily from anthropogenic metabolism. A couple examples of how humans contribute to the carbon in the atmosphere is by burning fossil fuels and deforestation. By taking a close look at the carbon cycle Peng, Thomas and Tian have discovered that, "It is recognized that human activities, such as
fossil fuel burning,
land-use change, and forest harvesting at a large scale, have resulted in the increase of
greenhouse gases in the atmosphere since the onset of the
Industrial Revolution. The increasing amounts of greenhouse gases, particularly in the atmosphere, is believed to have induced climate change and
global warming." Impact of climate change extend beyond humans. There is a forecast for extinctions of species because of their habitats being affected. An example of this is marine animals. There are major impacts on the marine systems as a result of anthropogenic metabolism, according to Blaustein, the dramatic findings indicate that "every square kilometer [is] affected by some anthropogenic driver of ecological change". The negative effects of anthropogenic metabolism are seen through the water footprint, ecological footprint,
carbon cycle, and the nitrogen cycle. Studies on the marine ecosystem that show major impacts by humans and developed countries which include more industries, thus more anthropogenic metabolism. ==See also==