Soil Health in the Age of The Kali Yuga : Anthropocene and Technosphere

Abstract

Anthropocene, the era in which impact of human activity is as big as any geological event to transform planetary processes, called ‘Kali Yuga’ in the Vedic philosophy, is characterized as technosphere since the mid 20th century and which is adversely affecting all other ecospheres (i.e., hydrosphere, biosphere, atmosphere, and geosphere). The adverse effects of the Technosphere are related to growing demands for new materials and incomplete or no recycling of the residues (crop residue burning) including the greenhouse gases or GHGs, materialism and excessive use of resources. Thus, Technosphere is “the global, interconnected assemblage of human-created, nonliving artifacts—such as buildings, dams, machines, infrastructure, and computers—that now acts as a significant component of the Earth system (Galbrith et al. 2025). Indeed, humanity has become a new and aggressive agent of transformation of planetary processes. Thus, Anthropocene is now defined as the formative epoch of human development because of its impact on planetary processes (Conte and Bates 2024). In addition to or in conjunction with the use of fossil fuel since circa 1750, dietary preference of increasing and growingly affluent humanity is the driving force of the Anthropocene or ‘Kali Yuga’. The dietary preferences at present have long lasting impact on sustainable planetary processes adversely affecting nature and jeopardizing human wellbeing. It is pertinent, therefore, to consider human diets to address the Anthropocene epoch as well as resolve current issues such as public health, climate change and related environmental crisis, and socioeconomic political challenges of the 21st century (Mazac and Tuomisto 2020). Regionally, diverse approaches, based on social and cultural parameters are needed to understand and address the complexity of the technosphere-driven Anthropocene (Peša 2022).