How long will human impacts last? - David Biello
The Anthropocene: A New Age of Mankind
This section introduces the concept of the Anthropocene, a new epoch in geologic time that reflects the profound and permanent impacts humans have made on the planet.
What is an Epoch?
- An epoch is a unit of geologic time that helps distinguish different periods in Earth's history.
The Record of Human Impact
- The record of human impact on the planet will not rely on obvious things like sprawling cities, but rather on new elements that humans have introduced to the world, such as plutonium and plastics.
- Stratigraphers who determine the geologic timescale have proposed a start date for the Anthropocene around 1950 when people started blowing up nuclear bombs all around the world and scattering novel elements to the winds.
- People's farming, fishing, and forestry will also show up as a before and after in any such strata because it's those kinds of activities that are causing unique species of plants and animals to die out.
Humans' Impact on Fossil Records
- Homo sapiens has had a big impact on future fossil records by causing unique pairings of flora and fauna to disappear. Even if people were to disappear tomorrow, evolution would be driven by our choices to date.
- People are making a new homogenous world of certain favored plants and animals like corn and rats, but it's not as resilient as the one it replaces. It's diversity that allows unique pairings of flora and fauna to respond to environmental challenges and even thrive after an apocalypse.
Soot in Future Rocks
- People's penchant for burning coal, oil, and natural gas has spread tiny bits of soot all over the planet. That smudge corresponds with a meteoric rise in the amount of carbon dioxide in the air, now beyond 400 parts per million, or higher than any other Homo sapiens has ever breathed. Similar soot can still be found in ancient rocks from volcanic fires of 66 million years ago, a record of the cataclysm touched off by an asteroid at the end of the late Cretaceous epoch.
Conclusion
- Humans have made such a profound and permanent impact on the planet that some geologists argue we merit our own epoch: The Anthropocene.
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