Earth 'Entering New Age of Geological Time'

[FarLeftFist]

Published on Saturday, March 27, 2010 by The Telegraph/UK

Earth 'Entering New Age of Geological Time'

The Earth has entered a new age of geological time – the epoch of new man, scientists claim.
by Murray Wardrop

Humans have wrought such vast and unprecedented changes on the planet that we may be ushering in a new period of geological history.

Earth has entered a new age of geological time Photo: BARCROFT Through pollution, population growth, urbanisation, travel, mining and use of fossil fuels we have altered the planet in ways which will be felt for millions of years, experts believe.
It is feared that the damage mankind has inflicted will lead to the sixth largest mass extinction in Earth's history with thousands of plants and animals being wiped out.

The new epoch, called the Anthropocene - meaning new man - would be the first period of geological time shaped by the action of a single species.

Although the term has been in informal use among scientists for more than a decade, it is now under consideration as an official term.

A new working group of experts has now been established to gather all the evidence which would support recognising it as the successor to the current Holocene epoch.

It will consider changes human activities have brought to Earth's biodiversity and rock structure as well as the impact of factors including pollution and mineral extraction.

It is hoped that within three years, their case will be presented to the International Union of Geological Sciences, which would decide whether the transition to a new epoch has been made.

The theory has been proposed by a group of scientists, including Paul Crutzen, the Nobel Prize-winning atmospheric chemist, in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.

They conclude: "The Anthropocene represents a new phase in the history of both humankind and of the Earth, when natural forces and human forces became intertwined, so that the fate of one determines the fate of the other. Geologically, this is a remarkable episode in the history of this planet."

Dr Jan Zalasiewicz, of the University of Leicester, co-author of the paper, added: "It is suggested that we are in the train of producing a catastrophic mass extinction to rival the five previous great losses of species and organisms in Earth's geological past."

[XemaSab]

1. Except for the evolution of plants

That was a big bummer, ecologically.

[Mojeoux]

9. Geologic Time is supposed to be so slow

that it's not really something that humans notice in individual lifetimes, let alone generations.

[XemaSab]

14. Not really

If Yellowstone went, it would be fast and ugly.

[orion007]

2. Good thing they left out all the evil karma man has accumulated

on earth since day one.

[TheMadMonk]

3. I prefer Asimov's suggestion for naming the modern era. The Obscene. nt

[cynatnite]

4. So this means that because of what humans have done...

that us and the earth are more dependent on each other for survival? Am I reading this right?

[Incitatus]

6. No, the Earth will be here LONG after us.

New life will rise after the next mass extinction.

[cynatnite]

7. Okay, thanks. n/t

[hatrack]

5. I think E. O. Wilson's suggestion was substantially better . . .

The Eremezoic - The Age Of Loneliness.

Besides, do you really want to use geological time designations, which tend to be really long, on a period of time that promises to be so short?

[unblock]

10. geological time designations are really long, but the transitions might not be.

the transitions might be caused by a single meteor or volcanic explosion.

[PhD]

8. Isn't it against DU policy to post entire articles?

I thought you could only post a snippet with a link to the rest.

[TransitJohn]

11. I've always thought it would be interesting

to have a time machine and visit Earth in, say, 200 million years and look for the geochemical signature of the 19th-21st centuries, point to it, and say, "there was mankind's infancy."

[Selatius]

13. We probably won't make it past 200,000 years, given our violent nature.

We're probably going to push ourselves into extinction either through war or depletion of resources or perhaps a combination of both. If in the distant future you want to find out when humanity went extinct, you just dig up the layer that has the most radiation in it.

[Motown_Johnny]

12. gonna be a very short Epoch. The planet can't survive it for long

either we need to end it ourselves or it will end us and move on without us.

I don't think it should be considered and epoch. It is more of a transitional phase )since it will be so short).