After 15 years of deliberation, a team of scientists made the case that humankind has so fundamentally altered the natural world that a new phase of Earth’s existence—a new epoch—has already begun.
Soaring greenhouse gases, the spread of microplastics, decimation of other species, and fallout from nuclear tests—all were submitted as evidence that the world entered the Anthropocene, or era of humans, in the mid-20th century.
But the proposal was rejected in a contentious vote that has been upheld by the International Union of Geological Sciences, the field’s governing body said in a statement published on its website on Thursday.
The decision “to reject the proposal for an Anthropocene Epoch as a formal unit of the Geologic Time Scale is approved”, it said.
The only thing funnier than losing the vote is the notion that it could be determined by vote.
If it’s got Union in the name it’s probably bullshit.
The Nematode population must have some solid influence with the International Union of Geological Sciences. Or maybe it’s just because it’s estimated that for every human there is likely 100 Billion Nematodes. They are a key member of the food chain. They are instrumental in soil health and are found in every ecosystem on the planet (inclusive of the deepest trenches in the ocean). In short, they effect the status of the Earth more so than humans ever could.
I vote that we name this new era “The Nematode Epoch”. Of course, if scientists were honest, the Nematode Epoch would have begun long, long, long, long, long ago, and would still be in effect. The Nematodes are getting screwed.
I do NOT eat nematodes.
Well, maybe not on purpose. But, yeah, you eat them. Especially if you subscribe to the “5 second rule.” 😀
But, but, but … the nematodes are dying … and transforming into hostile parasites due to Microplastics … we’re killing the nematodes because we use plastic straws. Ohhhhhhhh mommmaaaaaaa … the humans … the destructive humans.
Good news. Perhaps the Scientific Institutions are finally throwing off the attack of the nihilists (to be kind).
As for the decimation of other species part of the report, a survey of the literature showed that only 6 species had gone extinct in 100 years among the birds and mammals and none of them were from climate change or habitat loss. In fact, during the last 100 years, we discovered 15 species that we thought were extinct, so we are up 9 species. So if we are in the midst of a real mass extinction event, than where are the corpses?
So if we are in the midst of a real mass extinction event, than where are the corpses?
Same place as the residential school graves…
The only thing funnier than losing the vote is the notion that it could be determined by vote.
Reason #94,586 for visiting this site!
I just love it!
If this climate fraud should actually be an anthropological destructive climactic finalized event, and we really only have 6 years left to live.
Will the United World Order of
Global Warming and Plastic Removal- allow us to vote for or against our own Suscide, or provide humanitarian euthanasia for those over 55 years of age?
This Lump of Carbon procrastin cellular design needs to know.
Human remnants should make an interesting layer in rocks all over the world millions of years from now.
Enough that we should probably have a human era, but don’t start it at some retarded point in the 20th century
i believe the human era will be less than 1/4 inch thick if we ended it tomorrow other than the odd stainless steel sink. rust never sleeps , nor erosion
There will be a multitude of channel sandstone deposits, in many places perfectly straight for kilometers.
(highways and railroad beds). Most will be eroded away but a significant minority will be preserved in the geologic record. Other than a few isolated sites of human fossils and a very thin layer rich in radioactive isotopes, the rest of human history will disappear.
Such a layer would be a few microns deep over most of the planet, perhaps a little wider in those isolated spots where major cities persisted.
it is entirely possible, no? exceptionally advanced but say small size populations inhabited earth, well advanced than us, and wiped out of existence by geology. how would we know? emphasizing again very advanced a limited in size. how can we know?
ask Tolkein
People pay too much attention on names, presuming that names actually mean very much. 15 years ago, the International Astronomical Union voted to change the definition of what constitutes a planet, meaning that Pluto was no longer considered to be a planet like the remaining eight in our solar system.
Did it matter? Not really. Pluto itself was unchanged. Scientific knowledge had grown over the decades since Pluto was discovered in 1930, and it was that only which indicated the change was warranted.
True. But definitions change too. Just look at “vaccine”.
Agreed. Our understanding of the universe grows with every passing day. Hence our language and definitions change with our greater understanding. But the universe itself does not change.
All too often our language changes serve political purposes rather than acknowledge any fundamental understanding. Changing the definition of “planets” was pretty much harmless, though a lot of astronomers got very heated about it. This is why “anthropocene” was so phony. It was a distinction being made to serve purely political interests and added nothing to human understanding.
Exactly.
Modern human civilization is simply too young to have been preserved in any way in the geologic record.
The “Anthropocene” activists’ main piece of evidence was shallow sediments from a small lake in Ontario. The chances that this lake exists long enough to have those sediments become rock are very small. The next ice-age will probably wipe them away.
“The next ice-age will probably wipe them away.”
Chris, that’s absolutely the case. Glaciers during a glacial advance have always scraped the surface at least a couple of hundred metres deep down to bedrock. Before a glacial advance, it’s nearly impossible to tell what the topography looked like. Nothing whatsoever remains of the river bed that is thought to have formed the Great Lakes. The topography of most of central North America was changed completely after the the collapse of Lake Agassiz 8,000-12,000 years ago. And that was just a lake collapse and nowhere near as destructive an event as glaciation.
Jamie
Lol
Ohh …Shit..
.* Clot Shots* ?
Booster Dumps.
Deep Time dictates that the “anthropocene” era of microplastic blip and self important noise is just that…full of sound and fury, but, as seen from a deep perspective, signifying nothing,
I have old rocks that attest.
I have grown more than tired of the ephemeral hubris, benighted as it is, that tries to pass for knowledge in these enervating latter days.
Vote on an epoch? Makes sense. After all you can tax the weather.
Will the United World Order allow me to be euthanized, cremated, and put in a Urinal inside my favorite 1970 4 barrel carburetor 327 hp Mustang??
I wanted my cremated remaining ashes put in a Urinal on the shelf over the bathroom window, with large Magic Markers saying, ‘Please Do Not Flush.’ But my wife opposes.
Sounds like the climate cult meddling again.
Love that “Y2Kyoto: The “Younger Cry-Asses Boundary””
Cry-Ass Boundry…
Kate knows how to start an intellectual conversation.
Ha.
This whole proposal shows how the global warmers don’t have the slightest concept of geology, and highlights their narcissism. Changes in biology can be markers of geologic changes, but not the reason for it. The dinosaurs dying out is a marker for the end of the Cretaceous, not the cause. The great dying is a marker for the end of the Permian, not the cause. Perhaps human affects may someday be considered a marker for the end of a geologic time frame, but not likely, and certainly not before the geology has changed. The proposal is a good marker for the psychosis of present academia.