The Dawn of the Anthropocene Era 'We Are the Top Predator on Earth'

[xchrom]

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,765362,00.html

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Is mankind changing Earth in so many long-term ways that it justifies changing the name from the current Holocene epoch to Anthropocene?

Zalasiewicz: Mankind causes significant changes to Earth's biodiversity. Our CO2 emissions lead to such phenomena as global warming and ocean acidification. The list of human impacts on the Earth system is very long. Some of these changes are well under way. Others, such as the sea level rise that is likely to result from ongoing global warming, have only just started, and will develop over centuries and millennia to come. Based on our current understanding, a case to proclaim a new epoch called the Anthropocene can certainly be made. Our changes involve the refashioning of sedimentary pathways that build up new layers of soil. That includes the construction of those man-made strata that we call towns and cities.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: What needs to be done scientifically to determine whether we are already living in the Anthropocene?

Zalasiewicz: We should first demonstrate that the global environmental changes that have taken place are sufficient to leave distinctive and significant signals in the strata that are forming today and will carry on forming tomorrow. I'm talking about signals that clearly mark the Anthropocene as a separate interval of geological time. Thus, we need to show that the term is geologically justifiable. Secondly, we need to establish that such a formal term will, overall, be useful to scientists, and not a hindrance or nuisance.

[nichomachus]

1. This era will end -- and soon

Estimates put the extinction of humans, if we follow our current trajectory, at about 100 to 200 years in the future. We seem to be doing everything we can to speed up the process.

[bluedigger]

2. We are more of an "'event" than an "era", geologically speaking.

[tavalon]

3. Than you

Few people point out that glaring fact.