An expert panel had determined the parameters defining the Holocene had not only been exceeded, but in some areas smashed. That verdict ensued a pandoras box of questions and counter-arguments within the scientific community, across nations. Savage academic infighting is nothing new, but this tempest has important implications for the rest of us. Geological epochs define unique intervals of Earth’s history, and they’re defined by significant changes in geological deposits, like fossils or geochemical signals. Leaving the Holocene, which represents the last 11,700 years of relatively stable climate conditions, for the human-altered Anthropocene, which geological and other scientific evidence shows we have undoubtedly done, means we’ve set the planet on an entirely new trajectory compared to anything that has come before….
Image – China, Wuhan