Humans are currently destroying Earth’s biosphere faster than anything since the dinosaur-killing asteroid, but we are also the first species capable of engineering the planet back to life.
April 15, 2026
Original Paper
Humans could become the greatest driver of biosphere net gain in Earth history, but we are currently the second fastest driver of biosphere loss
bioRxiv · 10.64898/2026.04.10.715592
The Takeaway
For billions of years, Earth’s life was shaped by random catastrophes like massive space rocks, but now, humans have become a literal force of nature. This research reveals that our impact is currently the second-fastest driver of biosphere loss in history, trailing only the asteroid that ended the age of the dinosaurs. We’ve moved past being a simple biological species and have entered the realm of a 'macroevolutionary event' that is reshaping the entire planet's future. But unlike a mindless asteroid, we are the first agent in 4.5 billion years with the conscious power to pivot and actually create a massive net gain in planetary habitability. This means humanity isn't just a threat to the environment; we are the only force capable of intentionally 'terraforming' Earth into a more thriving world than it was before we arrived. We are effectively holding the steering wheel of the entire biosphere for the first time in history.
From the abstract
Human activity is transforming the shape, size, and resilience of Earth's biosphere, degrading and augmenting Holocene baseline conditions at various scales, and replacing the wild biosphere with an anthropogenically modified one. We evaluate episodes of biosphere change throughout Earth history and compare them with contemporary and near-future anthropogenic changes, developing the concept of biosphere disruptors - agents that force global-scale macroevolutionary change. Transient disruptors ar