A fascinating look at our disruptive “anthropocene” geologic era: “Millions of years from now, a stripe in the accumulated layers of rock on Earths surface will reveal our human fingerprint just as we can see evidence of dinosaurs in rocks of the Jurassic or the explosion of life that marks the Cambrian. Our influence will show up as changes in the chemistry of the oceans, the loss of forests and the growth of deserts, the damming of rivers and the retreat of glaciers. The fossil records will show the extinctions of various animals and the abundance of domesticates, the chemical fingerprint of artificial materials, such as aluminum drinks cans and plastic carrier bags and the footprint of projects like the Syncrude mine in the Athabasca oil sands of north-eastern Canada, which moves twice as much earth every year than flows down all the rivers in the world in that time. “In the Anthropocene, humanity has become a geophysical force on a par with the earth-shattering asteroids and planet-cloaking volcanoes that defined past eras. Earth is now a human planet. We decide whether a forest stands or is razed, whether pandas survive or go extinct, how and where a river flows, even the temperature of the atmosphere. We are now the most numerous big animal on Earth, and the next in line are the animals we have created through breeding to feed and serve us. Four-tenths of the planets land surface is used to grow our food. Three-quarters of the worlds fresh water is controlled by us. It is an extraordinary time. In the tropics, coral reefs are disappearing, ice is melting at the poles and the oceans are emptying of fish because of us. Entire islands are vanishing under rising seas, just as naked new land appears in the Arctic.” huffingtonpost/gaia-vince/gaia-vince-age-of-humans_b_6349788.html Concluding with: “The Anthropocene requires us to look at the world -- and engage with it -- from a new perspective. Only then will we design ways to produce food, water and energy and create livable conditions for the Earths species.”
Posted on: Fri, 16 Jan 2015 01:21:30 +0000
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