Welcome to the Anthropocene?
(Did) We Accidentally a New Geological Epoch(?)
About me
KonScience.de podcast
technical customer support
🎓 bio-
chemistry
geology & arctic ecology
now: lab automation
Chrono-strati-graphy
crash course
adapted from
git-scm.com/about
/staging-area
past
now
Chronostratigraphy crash course
"golden spikes" = measurable markers between strata
Deuterium concentration
Strata also defined by fossils (biostratigraphy)
Summary: Chronostratigraphy
- sedimentation & strata formation influenced by local factors but also by global events
- measurable golden spikes needed to define geological time units
- current epoch: Holocene (since last ice age)
is
shaped by biogeochemistry
not
a time of human control
The Anthropocene
[T]he present time interval, in which many geologically significant conditions and processes are profoundly altered by human activities [… which] have a decisive influence on the state, dynamics and future of the Earth system.
even staged
 N, P, C cycles
species going extinct
suggestion & popular concept
formally proposed, yet
climate change
ocean acidification
hard to separate into geological and environmental issues
Working Group on the 'Anthropocene' (AWG)
geo
strati
eco
ologists
graphers
historians
geo-chron
paleont
arche
climat
soci
ge
bio
2016
2009
Aug.: vote to prepare formalisation proposal
early-Anthropocene hypothesis
0 votes
Voting on golden spikes & start dates
-4     -3     -2      -1     0°C    +1      +2      +3      +4
1961-1990
average
anthropogenic soils
?
National Archives image 208-N-43888
Stephen Pyne (2016) The fire age (Aeon.co) photo: Les Stone/Corbis
?
Plastiglomerate
nukes vs. fossil fuels
Michael Büker (31C3) What Ever Happened to Nuclear Weapons?
Stefan Rahmsdorf (25C3) Climate Change: State of the Science
samples appear younger
samples appear older
archaeology connection: radiocarbon method
Pu fallout or CO2 + fuel ash?
Rop & Frank (32C3) Ten years after
‚We Lost The War‘
10:3+2
eco
geo
adapted from
git-scm.com/about
/staging-area
…reduce GHG by 10%/y
To stop the Great Acceleration…
RCPs 2.6 - 8.5 (AR5-syr.IPCC.ch)
divest financially & operationally
educationally as well?
1950
|
… Avoid rebound effects!
1
partial
full
r e b o u n d
backfire
super- conservation
none
0
Autos mit Fettsucht (SZ, 16.Feb'16)
+
ineffective behaviour invalidates technological efficiency gains (energy, resource use, etc.)
expected savings vs. actual
?
Welcome to the Anthropocene?
(Did) We Accidentally a
New Geological Epoch(?)
Not yet!
Erm, yes.
Will be proposed.
Summary
Accidentally? No!
– Andrew Revkin, nyti.ms/2etKk5y
Welcome to the Anthropocene?
(Did) We Accidentally a
New Geological Epoch(?)
That's on us!
Not yet!
Erm, yes.
No!
Will be proposed.
Summary
References & Sources
Susan Hassol's .org
Jeremy Davies' eco-political notes: MadeGround.com
Stories about planetary change anthropocene.stanford.edu
Michael White's ForecastPod.org about climate science & scientists
George Monbiot
.com
You just begin. You do the math.
You solve one problem, then the next.
Thanks for your attention!
Thanks to the Congress organisers, thanks to the angels!
Â
Questions?
When something influences sedimentation & strata formation globally, and future geologist agree on the next 'golden spike'.
Could be millennia.
– see also nyti.ms/2eiF87e, nyti.ms/1q8Qvrq & 10.1038/nclimate2923