Has the Earth entered the Anthropocene Age, or not?

[Estrid]

From what I can tell, fundamentalist Christians are a greater threat to creation by virtue of their denial of empirical data.

Regressive / ignorant anti intellectualism is certainly
a threat to your national security.

Tax supported, even.

 

[public hermit]

Regressive / ignorant anti intellectualism is certainly
a threat to your national security.

Tax supported, even.

I certainly agree with that. But to be fair to the ignorant and regressive, it took a lot of smart, even enlightened, people to develop the technologies that allow human activity to have a global impact. Humans tend to be myopic, and even very smart ones can be ignorant of the outcomes of what they do. And then you have folks like Oppenheimer who knew what they were doing but thought it was good as an instrument to end all war. That worked out.

 

[Estrid]

I certainly agree with that. But to be fair to the ignorant and regressive, it took a lot of smart, even enlightened, people to develop the technologies that allow human activity to have a global impact. Humans tend to be myopic, and even very smart ones can be ignorant of the outcomes of what they do. And then you have folks like Oppenheimer who knew what they were doing but thought it was good as an instrument to end all war. That worked out.

Expecting an angel with flaming sword
( which turns this way, and that) to guard the
gates of the trailer park when the Asian hordes of
smart, tough, educated, and, utterly unsentimental
about such religious notions finally show up - is
not going to work.

 

[public hermit]

Expecting an angel with flaming sword
( which turns this way, and that) to guard the
gates of the trailer park when the Asian hordes of
smart, tough, educated, and, utterly unsentimental
about such religious notions finally show up - is
not going to work.

Well, you've got all the caricatures down. I've lived all this time and hadn't seen "gates of the trailer park" and "Asian hordes " used in the same sentence. That's fantastic.

 

[Estrid]

Well, you've got all the caricatures down. I've lived all this time and hadn't seen "gates of the trailer park" and "Asian hordes " used in the same sentence. That's fantastic.

I'm rather pleased with it.

Humor aside though there's a reality there.

 

[FireDragon76]

Compared to the natural order of creation that doesn't turn from what's good because it's not what one desires. Human mess up everything they get their hands in. We choose wrongly, and we're a blight on God's creation.

Imagination has been a doubled edge sword. Only human beings can imagine it is better to strip the world of its resources in the name of some imaginary placeholder for value: money.

 

[essentialsaltes]

"Geologists hoping to declare a new epoch dominated by humanity’s influence on Earth have chosen Crawford Lake in Canada as the location where the start of the Anthropocene is defined"

Canadian lake selected as site to mark the start of the Anthropocene

Proposal to mark a new chapter in Earth’s history will ‘go no further,’ scientists say​

The proposal was rejected by members of the Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy, which is part of the International Union of Geological Sciences, according to three voting members of the subcommission contacted by CNN Tuesday.

The vote followed a 15-year process to select a geological site that best captures humanity’s impact on the planet. The international union’s Anthropocene Working Group, which spearheaded the effort, made a July 2023 announcement that identified the location as Crawford Lake in Ontario because of the way sediment from the lake bed reveals the geochemical traces of nuclear bomb tests, specifically plutonium, from 1950.

 

[Estrid]

"On Tuesday they will deliver the last of their findings -- the location of ground-zero for the Anthropocene, the proposed geological epoch borne of humanity's outsized impact on the planet. "

Welcome To The Anthropocene, Earth's New Chapter

Come Hong Kong and remove all doubt

 

[Estrid]

All classifications are artificial, designed to facilitate understanding and discussion. Therefore if this new classification is functionally successful the Athropocene becomes "real". If not, it will be abandoned. Personally, I think the Holocene meets our current needs just fine.

Ifn you think KT is a defining marker,
imagine the 20th century!

100,000,000 yrs from now, metaconglomerate
Coca Cola bottles, readable newspapers...

 

[Ophiolite]

On balance, the problem I have with Anthropocene is it is too . . . now what's the word? . . . . Ah, yes! . Anthropocentric.

 

[Estrid]

On balance, the problem I have with Anthropocene is it is too . . . now what's the word? . . . . Ah, yes! . Anthropocentric.

Surely you're joking

 

[Estrid]

I certainly agree with that. But to be fair to the ignorant and regressive, it took a lot of smart, even enlightened, people to develop the technologies that allow human activity to have a global impact. Humans tend to be myopic, and even very smart ones can be ignorant of the outcomes of what they do. And then you have folks like Oppenheimer who knew what they were doing but thought it was good as an instrument to end all war. That worked out.

I'm not sure how that segue works.

Re A bombs, they seem to have prevented
those with them from warring on eachother.

 

[public hermit]

I'm not sure how that segue works.

Re A bombs, they seem to have prevented
those with them from warring on eachother.

That's true. Instead of super powers fighting each other, the norm became war by proxy. Still, the refraining effect of nuclear weapons might not continue. It's not a given that those with nuclear weapons will refrain from using them.

 

[2PhiloVoid]

Expecting an angel with flaming sword
( which turns this way, and that) to guard the
gates of the trailer park when the Asian hordes of
smart, tough, educated, and, utterly unsentimental
about such religious notions finally show up - is
not going to work.

I hate to say it, but I think you have your Bible turned upside down. Genesis comes first, not last. Revelation comes last.

 

[Ophiolite]

Surely you're joking

Of course. And stop calling me Shirley.