It emerges from the application of systems thinking to the industrial and other man-made activities and it is a central concept of sustainable development.
In modern societies, the bulk of anthropogenic (man-made) material flows is related to one of the following activities: sanitation, transportation, habitation, and communication, which were "of little metabolic significance in prehistoric times".
[1] Global man-made stocks of steel in buildings, infrastructure, and vehicles, for example, amount to about 25 Gigatonnes (more than three tonnes per person), a figure that is surpassed only by construction materials such as concrete.
According to research by Dias de Oliveira, Vaughan and Rykiel, "The Ecological Footprint...is an accounting tool based on two fundamental concepts, sustainability and carrying capacity.
It makes it possible to estimate the resource consumption and waste assimilation requirements of a defined human population or economy sector in terms of corresponding productive land area.
By taking a close look at the carbon cycle Peng, Thomas and Tian have discovered that, "It is recognized that human activities, such as fossil fuel burning, land-use change, and forest harvesting at a large scale, have resulted in the increase of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere since the onset of the Industrial Revolution.
Studies on the marine ecosystem that show major impacts by humans and developed countries which include more industries, thus more anthropogenic metabolism.