Ah Sunflower

Since 2000, a radical idea has been floating around: humankind’s impact on the Earth’s ecology has been so profound that it is fashioning an entirely new geological epoch, the #Anthropocene. The term’s power derives from the intellectual heft it borrows from an academic discipline, geology. By measuring humanity’s planetary influence on a geological timescale, it implies an impact vaster than empires, though not more slow. It carries in its tail familiar narratives of planetary disaster and the looming threat of extinction. But while the idea is gaining ground, it has also been dividing geologists. To read “The Human Layer”, visit our sister publication, Intelligent Life. Image: Alamy.

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