Reader’s Corner: Robert William Sandford, North America in the Anthropocene
March 1, 2017
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March 2017 Wildlands Advocate book review, by Heinz Unger
It seemed more than coincidence. The same day I started reading Robert Sandford’s new book, I found the World Wildlife Fund’s Living Planet Report 2016 in my inbox. It introduced this new concept: the Anthropocene. It describes the current the geological era, one in which humans rather than natural forces are the primary drivers of planetary change. The WWF report presents evidence that worldwide wildlife populations have declined on average by 58 percent since 1970 and are likely to decline further to be only 67 percent of 1970’s level by the end of the decade. We can see this close to home in Alberta where key wild-life species such as grizzly bear, woodland caribou, and greater sage-grouse numbers have decreased at an alarming rate. AWA’s Wild Lands Advocate has documented that loss of habitat, caused by an ever-expanding human footprint (for energy, industry, agriculture or urban expansion), is the primary reason for declining wildlife numbers.
