Epoch fail?

[dvandom]

We may have killed the Holocene.

Comments

[redneckgaijin.livejournal.com]

... leaving aside the fact that 10,000 years is too short to be called an epoch, there's the question of where you set the start of the Anthropocene Era's start. Bear in mind that civilization (agriculture, the creation of cities, nations, war, etc.) began almost immediately after the end of the Ice Age, and mankind was manipulating (and trashing) its environment even before then. Desertification began in Africa because of a combination of natural climate change and human primitive agriculture; the process was actually documented, to some extent, in India within the past two millenia, as fertile lands became sandy wastes.

This proposal smacks too much of the Strong Anthropic Principle: making man seem like the most important thing in the universe, and making now seem more important than then. Junk science.

[jameel.livejournal.com]

Woohoo! Go us!

[richardx1.livejournal.com]

I've always said we're the latest Great Extinction.

[sigma7.livejournal.com]

Yes! Add epocide to our list of atrocities.

[grant-p.livejournal.com]

Now I just want to write a dumb song to the tune of TV killed the Radio Show, except it will be humans and the Holocene.

Though I don't quite get what the issue is with the Epoch...sure, I could see the world changes as sliding into another era, but the amount of change they speak of is actually far less then what was seen between the Triassic and Jurassic boundaries. A heck of a lot less then between Jurassic and Cretaceous....

[z-gryphon.livejournal.com]

Yeah, well, that's what we do to stuff that's not working out for us, right? That's what sets us apart from flatworms, E. coli, labradoodles, etc.

dvandom get the nomination for

[z4nd4r.livejournal.com]

Best entry title 2008

[wistling.livejournal.com]

They misspelled Anthropobscene.