economist.com
A new geological epoch, the Anthropocene (the New Man Epoch), may have begun; which, according to predictions, will include the sixth mass extinction in Earth’s history.
A paper has been written (The New World of the Anthropocene) in which the authors claim “…that recent human activity, including stunning population growth, sprawling megacities, and increased use of fossil fuels, have changed the planet to such an extent that we are entering a new geological era. Since the Industrial Revolution, humans have wrought such vast and unprecedented changes to our world that we actually might be ushering in a new geological time era, and changing the course of the planet’s geological evolution for millions of years.” The authors of the paper are Jan Zalasiewicz, Mark Williams, Will Steffen, and Paul Crutzen (who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his study of atmospheric ozone).
Currently, fertilizer factories are account for the fixation of more nitrogen (the conversion of more nitrogen to a biologically useable form) than all land-based plants and microbes. The runoff from fertilized lands triggers oxygen-depleting algal-blooms in river deltas around the world.
Poor forest husbandry practices have caused devastating erosion and an alarming increase in sedimentation (and giant dam projects cause the opposite, holding back sediment that would naturally be washed out to the seas of the world). The loss of forest habitat is predicted to cause mass extinctions, which are already occurring over a hundred times quicker than at any time during the previous half-billion years; and, if trends persist, the rate of extinctions may rise by a factor of thousands.
But the largest geological effect is the change in the atmospheric composition; namely, an increase in carbon dioxide (and other greenhouse gasses) as a result of the use of fossil fuels, which are causing a warming effect that could raise temperatures to levels not felt on our planet for millions of years. There is evidence that plants and animals are already migrating toward the Earth’s poles. Many species will not survive. It is predicted that sea levels will rise six meters (twenty feet), or more. Carbon dioxide will eventually acidify the oceans to the point that corals will not be able to build reefs (there is evidence that this process is already occurring, and by the middle of this century it may cause devastation to corral reefs). Reef gaps are a consequence of the previous five major mass extinctions; the most recent mass extinction was approximately sixty million years ago, possibly due to the impact of an asteroid. To the geologists of the far future (assuming homo sapiens survive), our footprint will look eerily similar to the devastatingly sudden consequences of an asteroid striking the planet. I wonder how we will be viewed by our distant descendants, but I imagine it will not be with approval.
There is still debate that the increased carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere is a naturally occurring phenomena (although the gasses are increasing at an unprecidented rate of over ten times the speed of previous epochs, mainly driven by human activity); however, these arguments, to me, seem moot: does it really matter? Is it morally acceptable to continue to belch and leach poisons into the atmosphere and waterways? I think we’ve become inured to the problem; apathy reigns, and I admit that I, alike millions upon millions, am caught in the lethargy of our society. This is what scares me: the ennui of apathy.
Paul Crutzen, who coined the term Anthropocene, has said that his “…hope is that the term Anthropocene will be a warning to the world.”
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“Mister!”, he said with a sawdusty sneeze,
db johnston
almost falling 