By George Sibley
The Anthropocene: I’ve been thinking about this concept a lot, but nature and culture both kicked in recently with ugly news that both affirms and challenges the idea of an Anthropocene Epoch on planet earth.
To refresh your mind (or assault it if the concept is new to you), “Anthropocene” is a new name that scientists from a number of fields, including geology, are proposing for the current geological epoch, known to this point as the “Holocene Epoch.” Some scientists sees the Anthropocene Epoch starting only 200 years ago, when humans began the large-scale use of fossil fuels. Others see it going back the full 11,700 years of the Holocene, when the Big Ice of the Pleistocene Epoch receded – “went back for more rocks,” as New England farmers say – and humans began cultivating land.
