Post your own comments, discussion questions, links etc. in the comments space below, and record them in your dated personal log-claim a base for each, and a run for every four bases on the scorecard. Happy Labor Day!
1. Who will ultimately decide the fate of the Anthropocene as an interval of earth history? 35
2. Who was William Smith? 36
3. What "allowed evolutionary changes in fossil organisms to be observed"? 37
4. What are the different chronostratigraphic units? What do they organize?39
5.What are "golden spikes"? 43
6. What's the difference between isochronous and diachronous units? 43
7. What's Earth's most recent period? When did it begin? 44
8. What does "Holoene" mean? 47
9. Name an instance of the "hyper-abundant" data on recent earth changes capable of leaving stratigraphic records. 49
10. Data showed a dramatic jump in the rate of human and environmental changes when? 52
11. How much of the terrestrial biosphere remains free of direct human impacts? 56
12. Name an environmental consequence of human use of land. 57
13. Earth is now hotter than it's been in how many years? 68
Discussion Questions:
- Why does it matter whether we call this the "Age of Man" or not, if "overwhelming scientific evidence already demonstrated that humans [have] alterend earth"? 34
- Why is geologic time critical to understanding our predicament? Do you think you understand it? How would you explain it to someone who does not?
- Why should mass extinction events bother us?
- Why is it "entirely pragmatic" that there are no geologic boundaries marking the origins of life"? 42 Why are pragmatic solutions to stratigraphic issues normally required? Are pragmatic approaches to difficult public concerns always necessary?
- Should we date the Anthropocene from the start of the Industrial Revolution in the late 18th century, from the mid-20th century, or from thousands of years ago with the start of widespread agriculture? Why? 51, 53
- Why should we care about plant and animal species extinctions due to human pressures? 58
- Post your DQs on ch3-4
Climate & environment in nyt... Rx for the Anthropocene? A Dose of ‘Anthropophilia... An Anthropocene Journey (Andrew Revkin)... Anthropocene Magazine... Learning to Die in the Anthropocene (g'reads)...
Today I’d like to elaborate how Earth would be affected if humans disappeared. I know this is an unusual topic, but try imagine if all people disappeared irrelevant from the cause.
ReplyDeleteSeveral hours after people disappeared, power stations would shut off due to not being charged by people using fossil fuels. After registering the significant drop in energy consumption, nuclear power plants will switch to ‘safe mode’. This will happen in about 48 hours. Solar panels and wind mills will eventually become useless due to dust deposits and in the wind mills’ case this will be due to running out of lubricant. Only regions running on hydroelectric power stations will have their power turned on, such as the Hoover Dam located on the West coast of the United States that operates with the use of Mead Lake. Three days after humans disappeared, the underground travel systems will be flooded due to the pumps being unsupervised. About a month after humans go extinct, all water in nuclear power stations will evaporate. This will lead to a series of explosions that will lead to radioactive contamination of plants and animals.
Animals, domesticated or otherwise, would (sadly) start dying of dehydration and starvation after 10 days. The animals who make it out of their homes or cages will begin a fight for survival. A few weeks later only the strong will survive. Big dogs will gather in packs and hunt smaller breeds of animas. A year after people disappear, satellites that we’ve shot into our atmosphere will start to fall. Twenty-five years later, all streets and sidewalks will be filled with plants that will invite the herbivores and eventually, the carnivores.
In our absence, the air will become cleaner and the visibility of stars will be clear after hundreds of years. The planet will recover from the contamination rather easily, but it will all take time. Marine life will thrive and reproduce to the fullest of the ocean’s capacity. Metal constructions such as bridges or towers will start to fall away since people haven’t been around to protect the steel from corrosion. After 500 years nature will take over the cities and only stone statues will be reminiscent who we once were. Plastic and pieces of broken glass will be the last traces of our humanity. After 50 million years, this will be gone as well.
As you can see, our planet is viable and can do without us. We cannot live without her.
Annotations
YouTube. (2016). What Would Happen If Humans Disappeared?. Web. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wy7Q6wazD_E. Accessed 2 Sep. 2018.
Wow, thats so interesting and the video was so informational. Its so strange to think about how much impact just our existence alone has on the world let alone the other things that we create and manufacture. Its sad to think that the thing that will be left behind for the longest that proves our existence is plastic and glass. It is very sad to think that so many domesticated animals would die in such a way.
DeleteIt's insane to think about how large our impact really is. So many things that we consider necessary for our existence demolish the existence of other species, from building homes to our mass consumption of food products. Even if we did these things as sustainable and environmentally friendly as possible, there are so many adverse affects that can cause harm to other species. I'd try to believe that we as humans have some greater purpose on this planet other than to destroy it, but this video and other sources have so much information that would suggest otherwise. Anyways, thanks for sharing the video!
DeleteGood book on this theme: "The World Without Us" by Alan Weisman-
ReplyDeletehttp://www.worldwithoutus.com/about_book.html
I found two good books for this theme:
ReplyDelete"Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson
"The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History" by Elizabeth Kolbert
The question about why we should care about mass extinction events caused me to look into how many such events have happened in the past. One of the biggest ones that I looked into happened about 252 million years ago and was mentioned in the readings for this week. This extinction event is also termed 'the great dying' and as stated on Wikipedia " 96% of all marine species and 70% of terrestrial vertebrate species becoming extinct. t is the only known mass extinction of insects. Some 57% of all biological families and 83% of all genera became extinct." It’s strange to think about how many species and biodiversity were lost during this time and would be next to impossible to regain. I think we should worry about such things because while I don't believe that we are on the edge of anther such event, but it is always good to remember the past. There are five common mass extinction events that are associated with Earths history. One of the main ones is the Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–Pg) extinction event which occurred 66 million years ago which resulted in three fourths of all plant and animal species on Earth to become extinct.
ReplyDeleteAbigail, I agree with you in that I don't believe we are not quite at the edge of the 6th mass extinction. Although, we have lost a great number of species it is not quite to the extent of a mass extinction. I do not think this means that our loss of species is any less concerning. There is no need for many of these extinctions that have come about by human activity.
DeleteDQ: "Why does it matter whether we call this the "Age of Man" or not, if "overwhelming scientific evidence already demonstrated that humans [have] altered earth"? 34
ReplyDeleteOver the past 70 years, most scientist have agreed that the Earth has been altered from all of the human activity that has gone on. From the Industrial Revolutions mass pollution, to the nuclear test from the 40s, all the way to someone throwing a plastic bottle out of their car window, we as a society have all contributed to the knife that stabbed our own mother in the back. This same hubris that caused us to value our own progression over maintaining Mother Nature, perhaps is the same reason why we are struggling to put a name to this period. Some might feel an overwhelming guilt towards the subject, while one might feel complete indifference, and another could have hope for the progression of our society. All these conflicting opinions make it hard to place a name on this age.
This age is not over, no matter how irreversible these changes may seem. Day by day, changes are being made toward the betterment of Earth. Scientists worldwide are now awoken to the need of action. Time is all around, and it is time that we use some of it to give back to Earth. As long as progress is pushes, who knows what life on Earth will be like in the future. While the “Age of Man” seems like the most logical name to put to this period, due to the environmental impacts we have made, perhaps we can still undo some of these consequences. It is too early to try a put a label on something that is not fully written in the stars, or in this case rock strata!
Patrick Nichols
DeleteI agree that conflicting opinions revolving about guilt/blaming are what's keeping this time being officially named "The Age of Man". It's interesting how much politics and social views can keep proven claims from being officially published.
DeleteFor the environmental problems we see today, many can be lessened or completely resolved through new technologies, new practices, etc. However, some results of the "Age of Man" cannot be undone. Correcting certain habitat and species loss are either undo able or unpractical to attempt. Also, some feats such as complete removal of plastics from the ocean are improbable. It's sad that so much cannot be completely undone and it's troubling to consider all of the effort, time, and support that will be needed to fix problems that we can attempt to resolve. The 'Age of Man' as definitely left it's mark on this planet and it's up to our generation to start reversing it's negative impact.
Extinction is a natural recurring process that cycles through the earth and time itself. Usually the biggest, baddest, and the smartest survive! Sharks and Alligators (and crocodiles) are basically dinosaurs from the prehistoric time and have thrive to survive. Besides that, mass extinction is also a recurring factor on earth as well! There has been a total of 5 mass extinctions, last one being 250 million years ago, and people now are thinking we are heading that way as well for 6th. It stated as “The Holocene extinction”. Holocene extinction is referring to the Sixth extinction or also known as “Anthropocene extinction” which is an ongoing extermination of all sorts of species during the presents of human activity. It also doesn’t help that our culture is constantly over expanding on resources, taking over habits for our own needs/storage (trash), and population growth. I was watching a movie, Evan Almighty, and it was released in 2007 and mentioned the population of the world and we have increased already by a little over 1 Billion in population which scary and crazy. So we are honestly only going to keep alive certain animals (like cows, chickens, goats, et cetera) to carry on our needs why other animals suffer from our selfishness.
ReplyDeleteAfter our discussion last class period about the direction and vision for this class, I decided to research for some articles that can give some insight on climate change through a lens of both political "sides". We live in a world where everything is thought about politically and economically. This article shows some viewpoints that acknowledge both as well as gives information on potential technological solutions, with their economical impacts as well.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/05/a-conservatives-approach-to-combating-climate-change/257827/
That was a really insightful article. Thanks so much for finding it and sharing it. It was interesting how the author brought in other peoples opinion and view points and also the information about the history.
Delete1.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0ofeD8VKMA
ReplyDelete2.) https://youtu.be/F0ofeD8VKMA
The above links are both to the same video of Steward Brand (who we have previously discussed in class) and Chris Anderson (the TED Talks curator) having a discussion about global climate change, mass extinctions, and the current scientific goal of resurrecting the wolly mammoth. If you have some time to spare I would really recommend giving it a watch!
I forgot to mention that you should probably skip ahead to around the 5 minute mark in the video. For the first 5 minutes they discuss the counter culture and Brand's position in it which isn't as interesting as the later discussion topics.
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ReplyDeleteALTERNATE QUIZ QUESTION:
What was the purpose of the Anthropocene Working Group? What were the main challenges they faced?