Neue geologische Epoche

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

Aufwiedersehen natürliche Umwelt, Hallo zerstörte Industrielandschaften.

* 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.
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As early as the late 1800s scientists were writing about man's wholesale impact on the planet and the possibility of an "anthropozoic era" having begun, according to Crutzen, who is credited with coining the term Anthropocene (anthropo = human; cene = new) back in 2000. That year, Crutzen and a colleague wrote in the scientific newsletter International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme about some of the dramatic changes:

"Urbanization has ... increased tenfold in the past century. In a few generations mankind is exhausting the fossil fuels that were generated over several hundred million years."

Up to half of Earth's land has been transformed by human activity, wrote Crutzen and Eugene F. Stoermer of the University of Michigan. They also noted the dramatic increase in greenhouse gases and other chemicals and pollutants humans have introduced into global ecosystems.
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"In land, water, air, ice, and ecosystems, the human impact is clear, large, and growing,"Alley told ScienceNow, an online publication of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. "A geologist from the far distant future almost surely would draw a new line, and begin using a new name, where and when our impacts show up."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20080127/sc_livescience/humansforceearthintonewgeologicepoch

Und die meisten Menschen interessieren sich nur für ihren neuen LCD-Fernseher oder was irgendein idiotischer Popstar in seiner Freizeit macht.
Aus dem Artikel geht nicht hervor, ob der Anbruch dieser besorgniserregenden Epoche revidierbar ist. Wahrscheinlich ist sie es nicht, gehen wir von der aktuellen Mentalität von Politik und Gesellschaft aus. Nun ist es notwendig, die negativen Effekte einzudämmen und wieder einen natürlichen Kreislauf zu etablieren. Da es nicht möglich scheint, die Mehrheit der Menschen zu überzeugen, muss man sie schlichtweg daran hindern, derart wichtige Entscheidungen zu treffen.