If approved for Aug. 2024, CA cite will represent the start of the Anthropocene epoch on Earth

brianlux

In 2010, activist/author Bill McKibben had a book published called Eaarth:  Making a Life on a tough New Planet.  In his book, McKibben described in detail how humankind has drastically altered plant Earth, which he renamed, "Eaarth".  We are now on the cusp of that notion becoming an historical reality.  If approved, a cite in Canada will be designated as  representing the beginning of a new geological epoch.  To give some perspective of the importance of this event, the epoch we are moving out of, the Holocene, began 11,700 years ago.  Epochs last a long time.  To live on the cusp of two epochs is an extremely rare occurrence.

On a purely scientific level, one could characterize this event as interesting, fascinating, intriguing, etc., all of which is true.  But on a human level, this represents some very difficult times for humankind in the not very distant (at all!) future.  We would be wise to focus a heck of a lot more of our attention and energy on figuring out how we are going to cope with the changes that caused this event to occur.  A lot of the other busyness we fuss about will become relatively trivial in short order.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jul/11/nuclear-bomb-fallout-site-chosen-to-define-start-of-anthropocene

Nuclear bomb fallout chosen to define start of Anthropocene
Plutonium spike in Canadian lake sediments marks dawn of new epoch in which humanity dominates planet


The site to represent the start of the Anthropocene epoch on Earth has been selected by scientists. It will mark the end of 11,700 years of a stable global environment in which the whole of human civilisation developed and the start of a new age, dominated by human activities.

The site is a sinkhole lake in Canada. It hosts annual sediments showing clear spikes due to the colossal impact of humanity on the planet from 1950 onwards, from plutonium from hydrogen bomb tests to the particles from fossil fuel burning that have showered the globe.

If the site is approved by the scientists who oversee the geological timescale, the official declaration of the Anthropocene as a new geological epoch will come in August 2024.

Experts said the decision has social and political importance, as well as great scientific value, as it would testify to the “scale and severity of the planetary transformation processes unleashed by industrialised humanity”.

The climate crisis is the most prominent impact of the Anthropocene, but huge losses of wildlife, the spread of invasive species, and the widespread pollution of the planet with plastics and nitrates are also key features.

The Anthropocene Working Group was set up in 2009 and in 2016 concluded that the human-caused changes to Earth were so great that a new geological time unit was justified. The AWG then assessed in detail a dozen sites across the world as candidates for what geologists call a “golden spike”, ie the place where the abrupt and global changes marking the start of the new age is best recorded in geological strata.

Candidate sites included tropical corals in the US and Australia, a mountainous peat bog in Poland, the Antarctic ice sheet and even the human debris accumulated under the city of Vienna. However, after several rounds of voting by the AWG, Crawford Lake, near Toronto, was selected.

“There is compelling evidence globally of a massive shift, a tipping point, in the Earth’s system,” said Prof Francine McCarthy, a geologist at Brock University, Canada, and AWG member. “Crawford Lake is so special because it allows us to see at annual resolution the changes in Earth history.”

(more at link)

cblock4life

Free will killing us slowly.  

mickeyrat

cblock4life said:

Free will killing us slowly.  

perhaps as designed?

cblock4life

mickeyrat said:

cblock4life said:

Free will killing us slowly.  

perhaps as designed?

Absolutely.  By our hand this time. 

HughFreakingDillon

brianlux

I've been reading about this for some time so perhaps could have done better started a more general thread about the Anthropocene.  The fact is (yes, I'm calling it a fact) that we have entered a new epoch, one that was set into motion by human activity, is something that I believe is a MAJOR event. The Holocene is (or has) ended. That epoch lasted about 11,700 years. To be living on the cusp of two epochs is an extremely rare occurrence. And to have a new epoch begin due to one species activity is unprecedented.  To my way of thinking, this is nearly mind boggling.  And (not to sound overly dramatic) rather unsettling. 

HughFreakingDillon

I didn't mean to dismiss it with a GIF. I just don't really know what any of this means. I'll have to do some reading!

brianlux

HughFreakingDillon said:

I didn't mean to dismiss it with a GIF. I just don't really know what any of this means. I'll have to do some reading!

Not taken as dismissal at all.  Seemed like a fitting gif!

Halifax2TheMax

I read the below WaPo gifted article a day or two ago and a few things struck me: the amazing science behind understanding the previous 1000 years of earth’s environment; the dedication of the scientists who spend a lifetime or a full career studying something that inspires and interests them; the knowledge and methods used to study the sediment, who knew liquid nitrogen was pumped down into a pipe that’s been driven down into the lake bed to flash freeze the soil and then hoist it up and study the layers?, and the understanding gleaned from it all, like pine tree pollen blooms?

Then I was basically glad that I won’t live to see the demise that is coming and that the demise is much closer than we all thought possible. End of the century is unlikely. We’ll be lucky to make it to the end of the decade. But more troubling was the realization of the connection between the science and what we see happening now, water temperatures around Florida are ridiculously high, as are average ocean temperatures, snow pack is down, glaciers are at record retreats, drought is rampant, forest fires everywhere, record temperatures everywhere, floods in Europe and now the US, it’s all going to shit. All at the same time. Didn’t used to be this way and with everything we understand about what happened from the 50’s on, it’s clearly, IMHO, gone over the tipping point.

It’s going to take a mass extinction to maybe bring it back into balance and even then, it won’t be what anyone alive today and who lives to see it happen will be used to.

https://wapo.st/3DdKzx6

Halifax2TheMax

And then WaPo follows up with this. More science. Gift article.

https://wapo.st/44ILO3m

brianlux

Halifax2TheMax said:

I read the below WaPo gifted article a day or two ago and a few things struck me: the amazing science behind understanding the previous 1000 years of earth’s environment; the dedication of the scientists who spend a lifetime or a full career studying something that inspires and interests them; the knowledge and methods used to study the sediment, who knew liquid nitrogen was pumped down into a pipe that’s been driven down into the lake bed to flash freeze the soil and then hoist it up and study the layers?, and the understanding gleaned from it all, like pine tree pollen blooms?

Then I was basically glad that I won’t live to see the demise that is coming and that the demise is much closer than we all thought possible. End of the century is unlikely. We’ll be lucky to make it to the end of the decade. But more troubling was the realization of the connection between the science and what we see happening now, water temperatures around Florida are ridiculously high, as are average ocean temperatures, snow pack is down, glaciers are at record retreats, drought is rampant, forest fires everywhere, record temperatures everywhere, floods in Europe and now the US, it’s all going to shit. All at the same time. Didn’t used to be this way and with everything we understand about what happened from the 50’s on, it’s clearly, IMHO, gone over the tipping point.

It’s going to take a mass extinction to maybe bring it back into balance and even then, it won’t be what anyone alive today and who lives to see it happen will be used to.

https://wapo.st/3DdKzx6

Potent stuff there.

I used to think I would not live long enough to see the worst of the demise.  But then, two things happened: I've lived longer than I thought I would, and the degradation of the planet due to human impact has happened more quickly than I thought-- or at least hoped-- it might. 

As much as it sucks that the problems seem to be escalating rapidly, there are two possible plusses:

1.  Enough people will get motivated to slow down the destructive activities.

2.   The sooner things fall apart, the sooner and more broadly Mother Earth can begin to heal the planet.  Look at what happened in the first few months of COVID.  People in many places reported the air cleaning up very quickly (we noticed it here).  Animals populations started to increase.  And that was just a few months of reduced human activity.  Mother Nature is awesome (literally) and very powerful.  Give her a chance, and she will kick butt.

Halifax2TheMax

It’s the “giving her a chance” part that I’m worried about. I don’t see it happening.

brianlux

Halifax2TheMax said:

It’s the “giving her a chance” part that I’m worried about. I don’t see it happening.

Possibly not, my friend.  If that's the case, that leaves one option- one that to me is the ultimate solace:

"Nature bats last."

brianlux

And lest we forget, there's always twisted humor to keep us going: