Dimensiones de la humanidad y retos actuales de la ecología

Resumen

Determined ecological implications of the human species' presence on Earth are commented. We highlight some of the current challenges of ecology, the science of ecosystems, observing a society aware, although not yet sufficiently motivated, of the scope of the serious environmental problems already affecting humanity. These problems have begun to be considered with resolution and determination in the academic world hardly during the last four decades. The circumstance serves today to devise urgent and necessary agreements providing solutions at regional and global scales. The effectiveness of environmental decision-making and the action of all political administrations across the globe are today a pressing objective. The issue was already a matter of concern for scientists such as González Bernáldez, among numerous researchers, technicians and intellectuals, some of whom we cite here. Many of them, and also the authors of this text, also consider that, too often, the terms ecological, environmental, ecological equilibrium…, amid other fashion terms, are not well understood or properly referred to in their true context, scope and application. Building upon the contributions of some of those scientists, and appplying our own perspective, we summarize the peculiar behaviour of the human species, considering the unwise use it has been making of the matter, energy and spatial resources of the planet, what this means at present and what it will imply in the probably near future if we do not change that behaviour.