Welcome to the Age of Anthropocene

H-bombs or chicken bones: the race to define the start of the Anthropocene | Environment | The Guardian

Humanity is now a ‘geological superpower’ and declaring a new epoch is critical to tackling its impact, scientists say

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Author: patd

“But I don’t want to go among mad people," Alice remarked. "Oh, you can’t help that," said the Cat: "we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad." "How do you know I’m mad?" said Alice. "You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldn’t have come here.” ― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

26 thoughts on “Welcome to the Age of Anthropocene”

  1. and/or this as to when it began

    Tractor spraying crops in a field.

    continuing from above The Guardian link:

    Exactly where and when did the Anthropocene begin? Scientists are attempting to answer this epochal question in the coming months by choosing a place and time to represent the moment when humanity became a “geological superpower”, overwhelming the natural processes that have governed Earth for billions of years.
    They could decide the start is marked with a bang, thanks to the plutonium isotopes rapidly blasted around the planet by the hydrogen bomb tests that began in late 1952, or with a shower of soot particles from the surge in fossil-fuel power plants after the second world war.
    Or they may choose the postwar explosion in artificial fertiliser use and its profound impact on the Earth’s natural nitrogen cycle. Microplastics, chicken bones and pesticide residues may also be among the eclectic signs used to bolster the definition of the Anthropocene. Possible other signs include lake beds in the US and China, Australian corals, a Polish peat bog, the black sediments beneath the Baltic Sea and even the human debris accumulated under Vienna.
    An international team of almost 40 scientists, who have been commissioned by the official guardians of the geological timescale, must select a place where layered deposits show the clear transition from the previous age to the new one. The team has come up with a shortlist of 12 sites that have now begun a series of votes – but there can be only one winner. Humanity has unquestionably changed the Earth far beyond the stability of the Holocene, the 11,700-year period during which all civilisation arose, and which will end with the declaration of the Anthropocene. The atmosphere, lakes and oceans, and the living world have all been transformed by greenhouse gas emissions, pollution and the destruction of wildlife and ecosystems. Humans also now have a greater effect on shaping the surface of the Earth than natural processes, shifting about 24 times more material than is moved by rivers.
    Defining the Anthropocene is vital, researchers say, because it brings together all the impacts of humans on the world, thereby giving a platform for holistic understanding and, hopefully, action to repair the damage. From a scientific perspective, a precise definition is essential for a clear basis for debate.
    [continues]

  3. here’s a crash course to help catch up with the new age – warning: this was published 8 yrs ago so it’s pre-pandemic and jim webb satellite days – and its vocabulary.

  4. The Linder Letter will help to curb gop enthusiasm 
     
    https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-countdown-with-keith-olbe-99705496/

    “The Rules Package the new Speaker of the House/Hostage Kevin McCarthy will present today will include a subcommittee with which Jim Jordan and Matt Gaetz insist they can investigate ANYTHING the Justice Department does, including active criminal investigations. What these toads don’t know is that they’re not the first half-baked fascists to try this…”

  5. that crashcourse vid ended with the admonition “our duty is to survive” which reminded me of the mission impossible directives starting with “it is your mission to…” and always ending with “this disc will self-destruct in 5 seconds.”   guess, thankfully, we have a few more million seconds to go before this planet earth disc self-destructs.

  7. Human beings are the only species that is capable of creating cures for its own ills.  First real advances in medicine is dated to ancient Egypt. It took from the beginning of known human history to about 1810 to reach one billion people.  At that stage we started wiping out other species.  In slightly over 200 years we have exceeded 8 billion people and are eliminating other species at a rate that now is an almost daily occurrence as we take over and poison the air, soil, and water that keeps us alive. 

    This Anthropocene era isn’t going all that well, and which will come first destruction or cure (Mother Nature or Man) is decidedly up for grabs.

    History of Medicine

    Population Growth

     

  8. Rules package vote in Congress: What we know about it and what McCarthy gave to his holdouts (msn.com)

    […]
    The full House will vote on those concessions Monday night as Republicans try to pass the rules, and already there are some defections. All 212 Democrats will vote against it. Rep. Tony Gonzales, a moderate Republican from Uvalde, Texas, said he is a “no.” And Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., said she is on the fence about whether to vote in favor of the rules package. 
    […]
    In addition to removing metal detectors around the floor and ending proxy voting, which had allowed House members to cast their decisions remotely, hardline conservatives pushed McCarthy into agreement on several changes.
    The motion to vacate: McCarthy agreed to restore the motion to vacate, allowing any one member to call a vote to remove him.
    More seats for Freedom Caucus members: House Freedom Caucus members will receive three of the nine seats on the powerful House Rules Committee, which has a big say in whether bills and amendments are brought to the floor.
    McCarthy agreed to vote separately on spending bills, such as Agriculture and Defense bills, instead of having them bundled in a massive omnibus like the $1.7 trillion one that just passed in December. The deal will cap spending at the levels from two years ago, which will mean cuts to most programs.Investigating the investigators: McCarthy agreed to a Judiciary subcommittee that will focus on the “weaponization” of the federal government, investigating the FBI and Department of Justice’s raid at former President Donald Trump’s Florida estate Mar-a-Lago and the related DOJ probe  into his handling of classified documents.
    Fewer contested primaries: McCarthy agreed to keeping his Congressional Leadership Fund PAC money out of races against conservative members in safe districtsThe Holman rule will be reinstated, which will allow amendments to reduce lawmakers’ salaries, fire federal employees and cut programsMore time for review: The concessions included a 72-hour review period to give House members more time to review bills before they reach the floor

  9. Well, Kev’s fight to be SOTH did one thing for Biden.   Any attempt to undermine Joe’s run in 2024 will be quickly smacked down, so as not to look like last week’s GQP.  I love POTUS Joe. 
    How long before the gavel is ripped from Kevin’s hand, or, will he always be a compliant puppet? 

  10. Pat
    You are at least 10,000 years late. The Americas were the last land to be settled by humans and once they arrived then there was no place outside of Antarctica that humans weren’t shaping their environment to suit their needs. Just ask the mastodon.
    What the Pilgrims saw as unspoiled wilderness, was actually a world shaped by the local human inhabitants. Look for changes in free carbon in the layers. Control of fire, mans greatest invention.
    Jack

  11. BiD, I’m not sure that remaining a compliant puppet keeps Kev safe from bein smacked down.  His caucus is fractured and Gaetz won’t hesitate to piss in Kev’s cornflakes if it lets Matt make a fiery speech that will get coverage on C-span.
     

  12. Little Kev, needs to go talk to the big Dog. Now that he is speaker he can draw support from across the isle. There is nothing that says he can’t make the rules a by partisan vote.
    Triangulate
    Jack

  14. Jack, if taming fire is the metric, and why not, that will considerably extend the beginning of the anthropocene epoch by about a million years. Wiki sez:

    Evidence for the “microscopic traces of wood ash” as controlled use of fire by Homo erectus, beginning roughly 1 million years ago, has wide scholarly support.

    You could say that the seeds of the demise of mankind were sown 700,000 years before what we identify as us (homo sapiens) even came onto the scene in the last 1/8 of the Pleistocene epoch.

  15. Pogo,
    There are some that say it was cooking that let modern humans develop. I think they have a good argument.
    But as a global phenomenon, mankind didn’t fully settle the earth until around 25,000 years ago. So give them another 10 to 15 thousand years to leisurely destroy the local environment. You know set the woods on fire to run a herd of mastodons over a cliff so we can have a mastodon steak dinner.
    Jack
     

  16. LOL.  That which allowed us to develop may ultimately lead to our demise. Arthur Brown  would be pleased.

    I am the god of hellfire and I bring you

    Fire, I’ll take you to burn
    Fire, I’ll take you to learn
    I’ll see you burn

    You fought hard and you saved and earned
    But all of it’s going to burn
    And your mind, your tiny mind
    You know you’ve really been so blind
    Now’s your time, burn your mind
    You’re falling far, too far behind
    Oh no, oh no, oh no!
    You’re gonna burn

    Fire, to destroy all you’ve done
    Fire, to end all you’ve become
    I’ll feel you burn
    ,,,

  17. It ain’t gonna take 15,000 years to destroy the planet, this thing should get that job done in less than 20

  18. Bink
    That is a forest management tool. Notice he is not clear cutting, he is thinning and harvesting at the same time.
    I’m getting some serious tool envy there.  
    Jack

  21. I remember a friend talking about playing in the woods behind his grandmother’s house.
    When I saw what he called woods I wasn’t impressed, it was a 1/4 acre overgrown city lot. 
    Jack

  22. That’s just the most-quickly procurable video demonstrative of the technology i could find easily, they come much larger, such devices fell tress faster than they can be stacked on the truck, corporate real-estate developers and the lumber industry  have refined the task of clear-cutting into a disturbingly apocalyptic ballet of destruction, they don’t give a shit, gotta make dat $$$
     

    (it was probably more than 100 acres, i estimate conservatively as a rule)

    ok✌️🔥 🌏

  23. Old enough to remember miles of farm and stock lands between the towns of California.  There was a time when the cartoon train call wasn’t just to cover the miles of cement.

     

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