Treading on terra incognitaDutch chemist and Nobel-prize winner Paul Crutzen was sitting in a meetin

Treading on terra incognitaDutch chemist and Nobel-prize winner Paul Crutzen was sitting in a meeting, in which the chairman repeatedly referred to the Holocene as the ‘wholly recent’ epoch which continues today. “Let’s stop it!” Crutzen blurted out, agitated. “We are no longer in the Holocene; we are in the Anthropocene.” The room went quiet. During the coffee break, the term was the predominant topic of conversation, and Crutzen was advised to patent it.Though we are evolutionary ‘babies’ in the story of life, our species has wreaked quite a bit of havoc. We have an ever-increasing population, likely to reach 11 billion by the end of the century. We bring cows, chickens, pigs along for the ride, using limited planetary resources to raise them in the billions before killing and eating them. We have exploited or altered 30-50% of the world’s ice-free land, clearing tropical forests at a rate of a football field per second. We use over half of the world’s accessible freshwater and have dammed or diverted most of the world’s major rivers. In the process, we extinguish our wild neighbours, our kin. In short, our young species are force to be reckoned with.In his paper, ‘Geology of Mankind’ released in 2002, Crutzen outlines the reasons why we must consider the designation of the new epoch. The last paragraph gave some examples, however Crutzen believes that the alteration of atmospheric composition is the most significant factor. Fossil fuel combustion and deforestation in the production of consumer goods and services have undoubtedly amplified the concentration of greenhouse gases, beyond that which would occur naturally.Crutzen believes that the onset of the Anthropocene occurred during the late 18th century, which is when data retrieved from glacial ice cores revealed increased greenhouse gas compositions (largely carbon dioxide and methane). Interestingly, this date also coincides with the invention of the steam engine (by James Watt in 1784) and the Industrial Revolution. Though the epoch is not yet formally accepted into the Geological Time Scale, it is widely used in science.Crutzen ends by noting, “Unless there is a global catastrophe — a meteorite impact, a world war or a pandemic — mankind will remain a major environmental force for many millennia. A daunting task lies ahead for scientists and engineers to guide society towards environmentally sustainable management during the era of the Anthropocene. This will require appropriate human behaviour at all scales, and may well involve internationally accepted, large-scale geoengineering projects, for instance to ‘optimize’ climate. At this stage, however, we are still largely treading on terra incognita.”VPReferences: The Geology of Mankind (paywall access http://bit.ly/1Pml4IqThe Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert (book) Image credit: Earth at night during the Anthropocene (http://bit.ly/231V9h5) -- source link

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