Welcome to the …. Anthropocene?
Yesterday’s Vancouver Sun has an article about a group of scientists who are petitioning the International Union of Geological Science to declare that, thanks to human activities, we’ve recently entered a new geological era. The scientists want to call the new era the “Anthropocene”, reflecting human (anthro-) impacts.
According to the article, the scientists will make their case in the February cover story of GSA Today. Marks of the new conditions include higher concentrations of atmospheric carbon and traces of radioactivity from atomic weapons testing.
I’m wondering if a layer of plastic bits across the sea-floor counts as a sign.
On the brighter side: looking for information on plastic in the oceans led me to this wonderful site at the Institute for Figuring. When you visit, don’t miss Inga Hamilton’s stunning jellyfish, part of the Chicago exhibition.
It seems a bit conceited to name a geologic era for ourselves. To me it implies a belief the "rise" of man has been the result of progress towards some inevitable goal. (Steven J Gould made an excellent case against this common perception.)
However, there's definitely some geologically significant stuff that has resulted from us, and so it's definitely worth considering whether we are entering a new geological era. It's just that rather than being responsible for a geologic era, we're responsible for a geologic boundary. The boundaries between geologic eras are usually marked by a layer of different stuff (iridium-laden dust at the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary), big extinction events (95% of all species died off 250 million years ago, thus distinguishing the Permian from the Triassic), and major climatic or geochemical changes (eg the dramatic and permanent increase of CO2 in the earth's atmosphere due to the development of photosynthetic life at the end of the pre-Cambrian), or a major increase or decrease in sedimentation. Geologic boundaries look dramatic and instantaneous in the geologic record, kind of like the horn that blares at a basketball game to signal halftime or the end of the game.
Bearing in mind that if the earth's history were your outstretched arm, filing your fingernails wipes out the entire history (and pre-history) of man, I'd assert that we've not entered a new geologic era but simply find ourselves opening our eyes at the very moment a boundary is being created between geologic eras. We are indeed leaving the Holocene behind, but rather than entering the anthropocene, I'd say we're more likely heading into the post-Anthropocene. We'll just have to wait and see whether we're going into halftime or whether the game is over.