Are We in the ‘Anthropocene,’ the Human Age? Nope, Scientists Say.
www.nytimes.com
A panel of experts voted down a proposal to officially declare the start of a new interval of geologic time, one defined by humanity’s changes to the planet.
  • LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net
    22·
    9 months ago

    My objection is that we already just switched from the Pleistocene to the Holocene in geologic time. Humans had already tremendously impacted the biosphere by the start of the Holocene.

    So Holocene = Anthropocene in my view.

    • Ephera@lemmy.ml
      4·
      9 months ago

      Yeah, not to mention that many of these eras end with a mass extinction event, and we have one of those going on, right now. Why declare a new era, if it might be over after 200 years?

  • WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world
    15·
    9 months ago

    Nothing to see here. Just another mass extinction event, caused by a radical paradigm shift in how life on the planet has functioned for the Earth’s entire existence, and all in the span of a few hundred years.

    • silence7@slrpnk.netOPM
      13·
      9 months ago

      There’s some debate as to whether the proposal uses the right boundary marker. A bunch of the climate scientists want the change in carbon isotope concentration instead of nuclear fallout

  • rbesfe
    15·
    9 months ago

    This seems like a disagreement on where to put the line rather than throwing out the idea of the anthropocene entirely

    • moody@lemmings.world
      3·
      9 months ago

      The issue is that we’re taking a lot of other species down with us.

      The planet will survive, and so will some species that are adaptable enough, or ones that over time will evolve to thrive in the new evironment. But so many more will go extinct due to the damage we’ve caused, particularly ocean life.