The What?
The Anthropocene is the name used by some scientists to describe the current geological period we're living in. These scientists believe that humans have changed Earth's climate so much, that now we're living in a period named after ourselves. "Anthro" means "man/human" and the suffix "cene" means "recent".
A well known geological period
is the Jurassic period.
The Atmosphere
The amount of carbon dioxide (CO2)
and other gases in our atmosphere has drastically increased. These gases trap heat in our planet: melting the ice caps, causing flooding, extremely volatile weather and large scale crop failure. In 1960 the level of atmospheric CO2 was [316ppm]. The 'safe' level was passed in 1988 at [350ppm] - today the level
is roughly [415ppm].
The landscape
One of the primary causes of man-
made climate change is deforestation.
At the beginning of human civilisation there were estimated to be 6 trillion trees worldwide; today there are estimated to be about half that number. Trees breathe CO2 and essentially 'capture' it from the atmosphere, but we currently cut down around 15 billion trees a year and only grow 5 billion per year.
Trade & Travel
Globalisation has increased
the amount of manufacturing and international-travel in the past two centuries; both are very reliant on fossil-fuels for energy and minerals for the manufacturing of goods. When materials like plastic get into the eco-system, they don't biodegrade for millenia. Scientific research suggests all attainable water
on Earth now has traces
of microplastics.
The Oceans
Melting ice caps are causing the
world's sea-levels to rise rapidly, long-
term this could be catastrophic as roughly 40% of the world's population lives within 100km of the sea. Ocean acidification kills ocean bio-diversity we rely on for food, as well as microscopic phytoplankton which produce more oxygen on Earth than all trees. These events are pushing a large number of aquatic animals
to extinction.
Long-term
Not all scientists agree on the period
of time the 'Anthropocene' covers, some even disagree on it being referred to by that name. Nearly every scientist is in agreement that for life on Earth to survive another Millenia, we need to replace fossil-fuels with renewable energy, plant trillions of trees and stop manufacturing single use plastics to try and slow the human
effects of climate change.