The Anthropocene: A New Age Of Humans

ABC Catalyst: 

Human impacts on the way our planet functions have now become so extreme many scientists are claiming the Earth has shifted out of the Holocene state and into a new geological epoch. They’re calling it ‘The Anthropocene’, the new age of humans, because millions of years after we are gone, the scar of our existence will be visible in the rocks of tomorrow. In this episode we look at how the last 60 years of socio economic growth has transformed the human race into a geological force to rival nature.

 

 

Prof Will Steffen

We have to leave nearly 90% of existing coal reserves in the ground. We have to leave half of gas reserves in the ground. About 35% of oil reserves in the ground. So, no Galilee Basin, no new gas, no new oil. And that’s to have a 50/50 chance. . . . .

The Anthropocene is exceptionally powerful. It is a single word that encapsulates the problem we have and the challenge we have ahead of us.

 

Prof Jim Gehling

It is really the lukewarm frog effect. We don’t feel the water beginning to boil around us. And that’s why there’s so much attention being brought to the concept of the Anthropocene. I’ve heard perfectly rational people say, “Well, it won’t matter when I’m dead.” Why are we here if things don’t matter when we’re dead? Course they do. We are part of a community, and that community has a right to continued existence, and continued existence in the presence of other organisms on the planet. And it’s possible. We’ve got all of the expertise today to actually solve these problems. We just don’t always have the will.

 

Prof Clive Hamilton

You know, I think it will take decades for people to understand what the Anthropocene means for humankind. I mean, it’s a profound ethical, philosophical, theological rethinking that humankind has to do.

 

Prof Will Steffen

The Anthropocene is exceptionally powerful. It is a single word that encapsulates the problem we have and the challenge we have ahead of us.

 

Narrator: Just to prevent temperatures rising more than two degrees, a target most countries have signed up to, requires a drastic change of tack.

 

See the full program.