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• citizenschallenge

  September 2016

  Pretty depressing, but the more I learn the more it seems to be in keeping with an age old pattern.
  Now we're simply smarter, more numerous and create destroying machines on a massive scale (and I'm not talking WMDs).
  
  

  Humans have long history with causing extinctions
  Die-offs around the end of last Ice Age linked to people, not climate
  BY  
  SCIENCE NEWS STAFF 
  10:00AM, JULY 12, 2014
  https://www.sciencenews.org/article/humans-have-long-history-causing-extinctions

  
  

  

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• dcpetterson

  September 2016

  Some geologists and climatologists are beginning to insist, for just that reason, the current geological era be're in should be called the Anthropocene. 

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• citizenschallenge

  September 2016

  
  

  The earth moves most for humans

  Agriculture and excavations shape the landscape more than rivers and glaciers.

  Philip Ball

  http://www.nature.com/news/2005/050307/full/news050307-2.html

  Human activities shift ten times as much material on the Earth's surface as all natural geological processes put together.

  That's the conclusion of geologist Bruce Wilkinson at the University of Michigan, who has used the geological record to estimate the earth-moving capacity of natural processes over the past half a billion years. He publishes his findings in  Geology1. ...

  
  

  The heartbreaking effects that humans have on our planet

  By Elizabeth Pierson | May 23, 2015

  http://mashable.com/2015/05/23/humans-heartbreaking-impacts-planet/#zzH63tODn5q7

  Our home planet is under extreme stress — it's unfortunate that phrases like this have become clichéd because the stakes are now higher than ever.

  Humans are harming this beautiful planet in more ways than we know. In a book titled Overdevelopment, Overpopulation, Overshoot (OVER), more than 170 images paint a picture of a landscape so depressing, it might just encourage some attention and change. From overcrowded megacities to oil spills and devastating deforestation, it depicts the impacts that humans have on the Earth. …

                       
  
  
  

  

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• citizenschallenge

  September 2016

  Explaining the Anthropocene

  by Ian Angus, originally published by Climate and Capitalism  | MAY 20, 2016
  http://www.resilience.org/stories/2016-05-20/explaining-the-anthropocene
  
  

  “We don’t know how long we have before climate change goes from dangerous to extremely dangerous, but we know that continuing with business as usual makes such a shift increasingly likely.”

  This interview with Climate & Capitalism editor Ian Angus was first published in the May 2016 issue of the UK magazine Socialist Review. Ian’s new book, Facing the Anthropocene (Monthly Review Press), can be ordered now from major online booksellers.

  
  

  Questions:

  Can you explain the concept of the Anthropocene and its importance for understanding the current climate crisis? ...

  You say in your book that climate change is usually seen as a gradual process, but that the reality can be very different. Can you explain what this means? ...
  

  You focus on the Second World War as the point at which global environmental change takes off. Why was this? ...

            "... That change began in the Industrial Revolution, but when scientists at the IGBP undertook the detailed work of quantifying the changes in the Earth System that define the Anthropocene, they discovered an unexpected pattern. In almost every case, graphs of long-term trends in the Earth System (atmospheric carbon dioxide, ozone depletion, species extinctions, loss of forests, and so on) show gradual growth from 1750 to about 1950, when a steep increase began.
            From 1950 to the present the trend lines have gone almost straight up. As the authors of IGBP’s synthesis report wrote, “The last 50 years have without doubt seen the most rapid transformation of the human relationship with the natural world in the history of the species.” ..."
  
  How do you respond to those on the left who reject the Anthropocene on the grounds that it blames all humanity for environmental crisis? ...              {If the shoe fits ...   }
  
  In the 1980s, in the face of resistance from chemical companies, the world banned gases that were destroying the ozone layer. What lessons can we take from this for today’s crisis? ...
  
  
  
  

  
  

  

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• dcpetterson

  September 2016

  CC, do you mind if I steal some of your research and make a blog post out of it?
  
  

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• citizenschallenge

  September 2016

  I am all about people sharing anything I put out there.
  
  I don't even care about attribution -> except when I share someone else's work - that of course should include original attribution.  It's all about getting more people to share information and think about what we are doing to ourselves and this planet that created and sustains us.
  
  Thank you for finding it interesting.

  

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