Welcome to the Anthropocene

I LIVE IN A SUPERFUND site. So do you, no matter where you live. Despite environmental laws older than I am and the migration of U.S. heavy industry overseas, the toxic impacts of modern human life touch every inch of the U.S. And it’s not just the U.S., it’s North America, it’s Asia, it’s Antarctica, every inch of everywhere really — even the organic detoxification spas across California. Welcome to the Anthropocene, or “age of man.”

We move more earth and stone than all the world’s rivers. We are changing the chemistry of the atmosphere all life breathes. We are on pace to eat to death half of the other life currently sharing the planet with us. There is nothing on Earth untouched by man — whether it be the soot from fossil fuels darkening polar snows or the very molecules incorporated into a tree trunk. Humanity has become a global force whose exploits will be written in rock for millennia.

We can think of our Anthropocene… Read the rest over at the Los Angeles Review of Books.

Published by

David Biello

is an award-winning journalist writing most often about the environment and energy. His book "The Unnatural World" publishes November 2016. It's about whether the planet has entered a new geologic age as a result of people's impacts and, if so, what we should do about this Anthropocene. He also hosts documentaries, such as "Beyond the Light Switch" and the forthcoming "The Ethanol Effect" for PBS. He is the science curator for TED.

One thought on “Welcome to the Anthropocene”

  1. David Biello
    I don’t know how to contact you – so sending this as a comment, although it is not relevant to he post above.

    I need help. I am indeed a rank amateur. I wrote an article opposing nuclear power for Australia – got heaps of flak.
    Then the flakkers wrote an article showing what a dill I am.
    Now the editors have asked me to write another article in reply.

    I find that the flakker’s article is very persuasive, even convincing.

    “The importance of facts in research: the IFR” http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=13746

    My own amateurish effort was “Answering Barry Brook on Australia’s nuclear power future” http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=13726

    I intend now to have a go at the article. If you could point me to any information source that might shed doubt on IFRs that would be great.
    Noel Wauchope – (via Christina Macpherson)

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