ScienceDaily (Mar. 26, 2010) — Geologists from the University of Leicester are among four scientists- including a Nobel prize-winner -- who suggest that Earth has entered a new age of geological time.
Scientists contend that recent human activity, including stunning population growth, sprawling megacities and increased use of fossil fuels, have changed the planet to such an extent that we are entering what they call the Anthropocene (New Man) Epoch. (Credit: iStockphoto)
And they add that the dawning of this new epoch may include the sixth largest mass extinction in Earth's history.
Jan Zalasiewicz and Mark Williams from the University of Leicester Department of Geology; Will Steffen, Director of the Australian National University's Climate Change Institute and Paul Crutzen the Nobel Prize-winning atmospheric chemist of Mainz University provide evidence for the scale of global change in their commentary in the American Chemical Society's' bi-weekly journalEnvironmental Science & Technology.
The scientists propose that, in just two centuries, humans have wrought such vast and unprecedented changes to our world that we actually might be ushering in a new geological time interval, and alter the planet for millions of years.
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Read more here/Leia mais aqui: Science Daily
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The Anthropocene, following the lost world of the Holocene, holds challenges for both science and society.
Department of Geology, University of Leicester, U.K.
Mark Williams
Department of Geology, University of Leicester, U.K. and British Geological Survey, Nottingham, U.K.
Will Steffen
Australian National University, Canberra
Paul Crutzen
Max-Planck-Institute for Chemistry, Mainz, Germany
Environ. Sci. Technol., Article ASAP
DOI: 10.1021/es903118j
Publication Date (Web): February 25, 2010
Copyright © 2010 American Chemical Society
Jan Zalasiewicz and Mark Williams are members of the Stratigraphy Commission of the Geological Society of London; Jan is also Vice-Chair of the International Subcommission on Stratigraphic Classification, while Mark leads the palaeoclimate team of the British Geological Survey. Will Steffen served as Director of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme, and is now Director of the ANU Climate Change Institute. Paul Crutzen, awarded a Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1995 for his work on atmospheric ozone, is Professor emeritus at the Max-Planck-Institute for Chemistry, Mainz. Correspondence regarding this article should be addressed to jaz1@le.ac.uk
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