We’re All Gonna Die: Dawn of Anthropocene Epoch

March 26th, 2010

Well…this is just a name for something that some people believe they already knew was going on. According to geologists from the University of Leicester, which includes Nobel Prize winner, Paul Crutzen and atmospheric chemist.

Yes. This guy winning the Nobel Prize automatically makes the whole thing true right?

While this stuff doesn’t sound like anything new, they still make the claim to give it a name for mass consumption. If you read the study, it doesn’t really tell you a lot of science. Just tells you about making the name claim from a quick skim. Have at it.

Here’s the claim we care about, which won’t affect any of us alive, but it is close enough to mention according to these gentlemen. May as well play it safe and get and insurance quote anyways.

The scientists propose that, in just two centuries, humans have wrought such vast and unprecedented changes to our world that we actually might be ushering in a new geological time interval, and alter the planet for millions of years.

Zalasiewicz, Williams, Steffen and Crutzen contend that recent human activity, including stunning population growth, sprawling megacities and increased use of fossil fuels, have changed the planet to such an extent that we are entering what they call the Anthropocene (New Man) Epoch.

And they add that the dawning of this new epoch may include the sixth largest mass extinction in Earth’s history.

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