Has Earth entered a new epoch? .... when humans became the predominant force over the environment.

[marmar]

from the Christian Science Monitor:




Has Earth entered a new epoch? What geologists think.
The Anthropocene epoch would mark the period when humans became the predominant force over the Earth's environment.
By Robert C. Cowen | Columnist
from the February 7, 2008 edition


Geologists wonder if they should add a new epoch to the geological time scale. They call it the Anthropocene – the epoch when, for the first time in Earth's history, humans have become a predominant geophysical force. Naming such a new epoch would also recognize that humans now share responsibility with natural forces for the state of our planet's ecological environment.

Geologists have been using the term informally for at least half a decade. Now members of the Stratigraphy Commission of the Geological Society of London have laid out the case for giving the term official scientific status.

Presenting that case in the February issue of GSA Today magazine, the team notes that "since the start of the industrial revolution, Earth has endured changes sufficient to leave a global stratigraphic signature." It is different from anything found in the entire geological record up to that point. That means the team expects future geologists examining this record will recognize a distinct break with the Holocene ("recent whole") epoch that covers the past 10,000 years.

Atmospheric chemist and Nobel Prize winner Paul Crutzen at Germany's Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz says this presents humanity with an awesome challenge. He has pointed out that what the London team calls the "novel biotic, sedimentary, and geochemical change" now being written into the geological record reflects the emergence of human intelligence and technology as a geophysical force. On his website, he explains this means that "to develop a world-wide accepted strategy leading to sustainability of ecosystems against human stresses will be one of the great future tasks of mankind." He adds that it will take "intensive research and wise application of the knowledge" gained to develop sustainable environmental management.

Soil scientist Daniel Richter at Duke University in Durham, N.C., would agree. In an announcement of his work last month, he explained that human-induced changes to the world's soils are enough in themselves to justify saying we have entered the "Anthropocene (or man-made) age." He notes, "With more than half of all soils on Earth now being cultivated for food crops, grazed, or logged for wood, how to sustain Earth's soils is becoming a major scientific and policy issue."

He adds, "If humanity is to succeed in the coming decades, we must interact much more positively with the great diversity of Earth's soils." ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0207/p17s01-stgn.html

[hunter]

1. The most resiliant geological markers will be the mass extinctions and garbage.

If any intelligent life form ever develops here on earth, or drops by from elsewhere in the universe, the geological record of our existence is going to be quite damning.

The name they give our species will not be flattering -- it'll be something like Detestable Monkey.

Pan troglodytes and Pan paniscus, the chimp and the bonobo, will be our good sibling species, and we will be the bad sibling: Pan obscenus horrendus: the offensive, disgusting, foul, loathsome, repulsive, makes-you-shudder-to-think-about ape.

[Delphinus]

2. Hi marmar,

This sentence from the article:
He adds, "If humanity is to succeed in the coming decades, we must interact much more positively with the great diversity of Earth's soils."

I would adapt that to read: "If humanity is to simply SURVIVE in the coming decades, we must learn to LIVE IN HARMONY WITH THE EARTH AND HER NATURAL CYCLES.

[marmar]

3. ""If humanity is to simply SURVIVE"

So true...."Succeed" is much like the term "global warming" - it glosses over a much uglier reality.

[pscot]

4. It's pretty much self-evident

n/t

[izquierdista]

5. It started around 1850

When the combined effects of coal-powered steam engines and the oil refining led to extraction of enormous quantities of fossil fuels. It will end when fossil fuels are no longer cost effective to extract and they have been replaces by wind, solar, geothermal, hydroelectric, tidal, and biomass forms of energy.

[Dead_Parrot]

6. The Ohfuckocene.

Or possibly, the Noonecouldhaveforcene.

[phantom power]

7. Do you know what it feels like to blow Vernors out your nose?

Now I do.

:rofl:

Seriously, how do I nominate a post for a DUzy?

[Dogmudgeon]

8. The Thanatocene

The era of death.

--p!