I’ve been reading about Epigenetics lately and how it relates to the Anthropocene. Epigenetics is a molecular process whereby human-caused environmental changes (e.g., pollution, climate change, invasive species) affect plant and animal behavior through changes in genetic expression but not the underlying genetic markers.

For example plants exposed to car exhaust, which contains high levels of nitrogen oxides, can stress plants out, delaying the production of flowers. Or other air born pollutants like nitrate radicals can degrade the natural chemical scents of flowers resulting in diminished fragrances otherwise referred to as ‘scent pollution’.

Epigenetics and the specific process of how gene expression changes via DNA Methylation is not without controversy. It seems like there’s a split between old and new school geneticists in how they understand these genetic expression changes are happening but there is consensus that they are happening and there’s significant investment to understand the impact of human caused pollution on crop yields as well as many other applications. It’s predicted that climate change could reduce crop yields for corn and soybeans in the US by as much as 20% by 2050. Extensive research is being done to understand how to manipulate epigentics to increase these crop yields.

But what inspires me here is not just the macro impacts these changes are having but how everything has changed now in nature on a small scale, in an everyday type of way. How every leaf, every blade of grass, every flower, every drop of water, is now different on a cellular level from human impact. As Bill McKibben wrote in his book “The End of Nature” there is no more wild in wilderness. We’ve changed it all and we’ll be changing it a lot more the years and centuries to come.

Here’s an image titled Methylation.

It’s a photo collage of leaves and grass, embedded with the letters ATCG and hexagon graphics referencing DNA and molecules.

While everything has changed, that’s not new, everything is always changing – what’s new is all the stuff we’re putting in the atmosphere and soil and all the forests and fields we’re destroying is impacting everything on a cellular level and changing plant and animal behavior. Pretty creepy but also not surprising. I wonder what nature will be like in 50 years or 500 years or 5,000 years from now. There’s so much that we know and don’t know but what’s for sure is humans will continue to manipulate the environment without much understanding or care of how we are impacting eco-systems, plants, animals and ourselves.