Scientists are declaring the dawn of a new human-influenced epoch, the anthropocene, beginning about 1950. This is scary stuff. We have profoundly, irreversibly changed the planet after 12000 years of relatively stable climate in the Holocene Epoch.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/the-anthropocene-epoch-scientists-declare-dawn-of-human-influenced-age/ar-AAicH9D?li=BBnb7Kz
From the article:
Evidence of the Anthropocene
Human activity has:
- Pushed extinction rates of animals and plants far above the long-term average. The Earth is now on course to see 75% of species become extinct in the next few centuries if current trends continue.
- Increased levels of climate-warming CO2 in the atmosphere at the fastest rate for 66m years, with fossil-fuel burning pushing levels from 280 parts per million before the industrial revolution to 400ppm and rising today.
- Put so much plastic in our waterways and oceans that microplastic particles are now virtually ubiquitous, and plastics will likely leave identifiable fossil records for future generations to discover.
- Doubled the nitrogen and phosphorous in our soils in the past century with our fertiliser use. This is likely to be the largest impact on the nitrogen cycle in 2.5bn years.
- Left a permanent layer of airborne particulates in sediment and glacial ice such as black carbon from fossil fuel burning.
