Humans Being a Bad Role Model for a New Epoch

Ok - first of all, an epoch is a time period that lasts for many, many years. An epoch changes to a new epoch when a massive change happens. Well, scientists are saying that we have entered a new epoch called the Anthropocene. By the way, the epoch that we left was called the Holocene which started about 10,000 - 12,000 years ago when there was the last ice age. But this isn't excactly a time for celebration. The big massive change is that human activities have now become the dominating force of change on the planet and lets just say that us humans aren't being a good role model for the smaller, lesser beings on Earth.

If right now you are thinking, well, I'm not really that much of a dominating force on the planet, am I? Well, yes and no. One person alone is not a big force and threat to the planet but all 6 billion people on the earth is. If you look at the air, humans are quickly changing the compostition of our atmosphere by burning huge amounts of oil, coal and gas. So now Carbon dioxide levels are one third higher than they were 200 years ago! Ok, so that's one way us humans are drastically changing the planet. Humans are also the cause of the extinction of many species which may lead to a mass exticntion. Humans are also replacing huge areas of vegetation with agricultural crops.

Next we go to the oceans. Because of the burning of fossil fuels and creating carbon dioxide our planet is heating up and ice is melting so oceans are rising. As water heats up it also expands which makes it rise even more.

So that's that. Us humans have become such a force that now we have our own epoch just for us. What are we going to do with the earth within the next century, that is the question.

This information was taken from the David Suzuki website. To see the original article click here.