The Water Reality of the Anthropocene.
The current era is increasingly described as the Anthropocene : a term used to capture the extent to which human activities now dominate and reshape key components of the Earth system. It is marked by the scale and speed of human-driven change in climate , land use , biogeochemical cycles , and biodiversity, far beyond the range of natural variability in recent history. Water is at the center of this transformation . Over the past century, societies have drastically reconfigured the global water cycle. Dams, diversions, drainage works, and canals have transformed river systems. Irrigation, land-use change, and groundwater pumping have altered evapotranspiration and recharge patterns. Greenhouse gas emissions have warmed the atmosphere and oceans, changing precipitation regimes , snowpack, glacier mass balance and the intensity of extremes. Population growth, urbanization, and economic expansion have increased water demand for agriculture, industry, energy and cities . These pr...