Fig. 1
The long history of human impacts on the Mediterranean region: twelve thousand years of human-environment interactions that have shaped the landscape, from low influence (green) to high impact (red). The non-linear arrows mark the need to recover more virtuous attitudes and relationships with the environment closer to past habits. The terms ‘Anthropocene’ and ‘Pro-Anthropocene’ are intended as a cultural concept and not as epoch in Earth’s geological timeline (as discussed by International Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy in 2024); the ‘Pro-Anthropocene’ refers to the environmental-cultural conditions that prepared the onset of the Anthropocene.
