My eyes are filled with tears right now. We are indeed living on a different planet today. I heard this morning that a total of 500 tornadoes have been reported over the past 30 days. The devastation from the current round of catastrophic tornadoes and floods are compounded by my awareness that this is not going to stop. These enormous storms, floods, droughts, wildfires, frigid winters and unbearable summer heat, melting glaciers, rising seas, vast species extinction, millions of climate refugees, and more are just the tipping edge of much worse to come. I can't even wrap my mind around this reality. All I know is that my heart hurts. I ache for all those, human and nonhuman, who are suffering such unimaginable trauma, loss, and death. And my anger is beyond words that we humans have squandered decades on inaction since what was coming was first clearly told to us. Actually, that's not true — the vast majority have not had this information, and millions of us actually remain unaware today about human caused climate change because we have systematically and intentionally not been informed. The incredibly poisonous and powerful money behind the fossil fuel industry, Wall Street and the big banks, the military industrial complex, the Koch brothers, the politicians from both political parties who've sold their souls to their neoliberal corporate donors, all who've worked relentlessly to spread doubt and silence the media, and more is the most toxic, criminal, and deadly of all. Now we live in this new reality, this new planet, this new climate. And much worse is coming. What will we do about it?? This is the greatest question of our time and all times. — Molly
The recognition of the new epoch is a step toward recognizing that humankind has drastically altered the planet.
In a step toward formally recognizing that humankind — with its incessant burning of fossil fuels, use of nuclear weapons, and more — has dramatically altered the state of planet Earth, a panel of prominent scientists voted last week to designate a new geological epoch titled the “Anthropocene.”
The 34-member Anthropocene Working Group (AWG) is expected to submit a proposal to the International Commission on Stratigraphy to officially recognize the Anthropocene — which means “age of man” — by 2021.
According to Nature‘s Meera Subramanian, 29 members of the AWG voted “in favor of starting the new epoch in the mid-twentieth century, when a rapidly rising human population accelerated the pace of industrial production, the use of agricultural chemicals, and other human activities.”
“At the same time,” Subramanian reported, “the first atomic-bomb blasts littered the globe with radioactive debris that became embedded in sediments and glacial ice, becoming part of the geologic record.”
Last week’s vote, which was over a decade in the making, was just the first step in the process of formally recognizing the Anthropocene epoch.
Please continue this article here: https://truthout.org/articles/scientific-panel-votes-to-recognize-the-destructive-impact-of-the-anthropocene/
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