I came across a good posting on Carbon Brief that gives a succinct historical background for designating the new geological epoch, the Anthropocene, and thought I’d pass it on. As defined by the English Oxford Living Dictionaries, the Anthropocene is: Relating to or denoting the current geological age, viewed as the period during which human…
Tag: anthropocene
Sagan 2013 Lecture: Terra Sapiens -The Role of Science in Fostering a Wisely Managed Earth
So you couldn’t go to the 2013 American Geophysical Union’s Fall meeting in San Francisco? Now at least we can listen to the Carl Sagan Lecture by Dr. David Grinspoon, entitled “Terra Sapiens: The Role of Science in Fostering a Wisely Managed Earth” that is now posted on YouTube. It’s well worth the hour’s time: [embedplusvideo…
The Anthropocene Is Here
The last 250 years of human history have vastly changed out planet. During this time, human activities have greatly transformed geologically significant conditions and processes. The change is so immense that many geologists now refer to our current time as the Anthropocene – a word coined in 2000 by Eugene Stoermer and Paul Crutzen, a Nobel-winning Dutch chemist. The word…
Anthropocene: Is there a new human-based geological age?
Geologists are well known for separating the geologic time scale into many time units. The most recent time division, the Holocene, has now lasted about 11,700 years, during which time the climate has been fairly stable. However, at several recent geological meetings, geologists have discussed the premise that because human activity has so irrevocably changed…