Are We in the ‘Anthropocene,’ the Human Age?

[BidenPresident]

The Triassic was the dawn of the dinosaurs. The Paleogene saw the rise of mammals. The Pleistocene included the last ice ages.

Is it time to mark humankind’s transformation of the planet with its own chapter in Earth history, the “Anthropocene,” or the human age?

Not yet, scientists have decided, after a debate that has spanned nearly 15 years. Or the blink of an eye, depending on how you look at it.

A committee of roughly two dozen scholars has, by a large majority, voted down a proposal to declare the start of the Anthropocene, a newly created epoch of geologic time, according to an internal announcement of the voting results seen by The New York Times.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/05/...ted.html?login=smartlock&auth=login-smartlock

 

[Walt]

I know the geologists all point to the radioactivity poured out by the atomic bombs as being the major marker for the anthropocene, but I think it is the plastic, or even just the change in animals and plants. Humans have greatly increased the amount of mammal mass on earth, because we like eating mammals. The plants over large portions of the earth have changed, so they produce more food for us. Even most of the old growth forests have been replaced by forests to our liking.

 

[BidenPresident]

I know the geologists all point to the radioactivity poured out by the atomic bombs as being the major marker for the anthropocene, but I think it is the plastic, or even just the change in animals and plants. Humans have greatly increased the amount of mammal mass on earth, because we like eating mammals. The plants over large portions of the earth have changed, so they produce more food for us. Even most of the old growth forests have been replaced by forests to our liking.

Agree. There is no doubt industrialization has profoundly changed our environment.

 

[Walt]

Agree. There is no doubt industrialization has profoundly changed our environment.

Yes, but even just agriculture has profoundly changed our environment.

 

[BidenPresident]

Yes, but even just agriculture has profoundly changed our environment.

One day AI robots will make humans into a minority population.

 

[Cypress]

Geologic time periods are based on the stratigraphic and chronological correlation of rock and fossil assemblages.

There is no equivalent geologic record for the last few centuries of industrialization and large scale agriculture.

This is really an ecological question some people are trying to shoehorn into a longstanding geological framework.

 

[Walt]

One day AI robots will make humans into a minority population.

It would be a great way to handle population decline. We could all live the same or even better lifestyles, with fewer and fewer people.

 

[Stone]

We are in the END stage...........