Earth entering new Epoch? If so, welcome to the Anthropocene Epoch.

[ck4829]

Humans have altered Earth so much that scientists say a new epoch in the planet's geologic history has begun.

Say goodbye to the 10,000-year-old Holocene Epoch and hello to the Anthropocene.

Among the major changes heralding this two-century-old man-made epoch:

* Vastly altered sediment erosion and deposition patterns.
* Major disturbances to the carbon cycle and global temperature.
* Wholesale changes in biology, from altered flowering times to new migration patterns.
* Acidification of the ocean, which threatens tiny marine life that forms the bottom of the food chain.

The idea, first suggested in 2000 by Nobel Prize-winning chemist Paul Crutzen, has gained steam with two new scientific papers that call for official recognition of the shift.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20080127/sc_livescience/humansforceearthintonewgeologicepoch

[sinkingfeeling]

1. Something about this was on the History Channel last night.

[Selatius]

2. What we've done is release trapped CO2 that had been in the crust since at least the Jurassic period

The reason why tropical forests covered all the continents when the dinosaurs lived was because the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere was somewhere like four times the amount in the atmosphere today. This was the result of heavy vulcanism on the surface of the planet releasing a lot of CO2 from the interior of earth.

However, I am still confidant that what we've done is simply push back the arrival of another ice age, not completely eliminated it. The continents in their current position ensure that the artic ocean is relatively cut off from currents from other oceans in the world, thus helping to keep it cooler than other bodies of water. If humans doubled or tripled the amount of CO2 currently in the atmosphere, the earth will simply be too warm for any major polar ice caps.

[lapfog_1]

3. Usually, such Epochs are also noted for the

mass extinction events that accompany the change in environment.

Also, there was a news article with a disturbing piece bit of information. In one year (2005) HALF of the remaining coral reefs in the Caribbean died. One half. In one year. Bleached.

And the oceans are growing more and more acidic. Acid, even a weak acid, eats away the coral.

[cobalt1999]

4. Considering what we are doing to the planet.

It makes sense. It'll also be the shortest epoch in the Earth's history as we are quickly going down a path leading to our own demise.

[alfredo]

5. Let's hope there will be someone around to read the fossil record.