The Holocene, the Anthropocene, climate change, and Catalyst

Those of us interested in climate change, its impacts and possible mitigation would have enjoyed tonight’s Catalyst program on ABC television.

Scientists claim that the Earth has shifted out of the Holocene state and into a new geological epoch.

Catalyst looks at how the last 60 years has transformed the human race into a geological force to rival nature and scientists and others are considering the Anthropocene.

Watch tonight’s episode.

The Holocene, the Anthropocene, climate change, and Catalyst

Those of us interested in climate change, its impacts and possible mitigation would have enjoyed tonight’s Catalyst program on ABC television.

Scientists claim that the Earth has shifted out of the Holocene state and into a new geological epoch.

Catalyst looks at how the last 60 years has transformed the human race into a geological force to rival nature and scientists and others are considering the Anthropocene.

Watch tonight’s episode.

Bracing scientific assessment points the finger as humans

A group of 24 geoscientists on Thursday released a bracing assessment, suggesting that humans have altered the Earth so extensively that the consequences will be detectable in current and future geological records. They therefore suggest that we should consider the Earth to have moved into a new geologic epoch, the “Anthropocene,” sometime circa 1945-1964.

The current era (at least under present definitions), known as the Holocene, began about 11,700 years ago, and was marked by warming and large sea level rise coming out of a major cool period, the Younger Dryas. However, the researchers suggest, changes ranging from growing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to infusions of plastics into marine sediments suggest that we’ve now left the Holocene decisively behind — and that the proof is already being laid down in polar ice cores, deep ocean sediments, and future rocks themselves.

Read The Washington Post story - “Scientists say humans have now brought on an entirely new geologic epoch.”

Desolation and destruction of democracy not an April Fool's Day joke

A

n observation today, on April Fool's Day that humans may face desolation in the Anthropocene may seem like a joke, but it’s not, Robyn Eckersley is deadly serious.

Prof Robyn Eckersley - she fears
 for democracy's future.

The Professor of Political Science in the School of Social and Political Sciences at University of Melbourne, has written about her concerns on The Conversation.

She writes; “The term Anthropocene has made many democrats nervous about democracy’s future. Earth scientists tell us we have drifted out of the Holocene into the Anthropocene. In this new epoch, humans are the dominant “geological force” shaping the Earth’s systems.”

Prof Eckersley said the 11,500 year-long Holocene has provided a relatively stable climate conducive to the emergence and development of human civilisation.

However, she added, “In contrast, the Anthropocene may be characterised by unpredictable and possibly abrupt and cataclysmic environmental changes.”

Her story - “Anthropocene raises risks of Earth without democracy and without us” – was published today.

Have we made geological history?

This is natural, but it is it? Humans have
 changed the atmosphere and so does
this growth continue to be "natural".

Have we, that is you, me and along with our fellows, made genuine geological history in that our efforts have resulted in the “Anthropocene”?

Scientists from around the world met this week to decide whether to call time on the Holocene epoch after 11,700 years and begin a new geological age called the Anthropocene - to reflect humankind's deep impact on the planet.

A story headed: “Scientists Mull Change Of Epoch To Reflect Human Impact On The Planet” discusses that idea that the Holocene epoch if finally over after 11,700 years.