Podcasts about anthropocene working group

The Anthropocene is a new geological epoch that began in the 1950s when humans started altering the planet with various forms of industrial and radioactive material. The International Geological Congress will meet in Korea in 2024 to consider the Anthropocene designation. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/james-herlihy/message

Since the middle of the 20th century, humans have had a very strong effect on planet Earth. These effects have included climate change, species loss and pollution. Humanity's impact has been so strong that scientists say a new geological epoch began then.The scientists call it the Anthropocene epoch. The word comes from the Greek terms for “human” and “new.” This epoch started sometime between 1950 and 1954, the scientists say. There is evidence worldwide of the harmful impact on the Earth's health of burning fossil fuels, dropping nuclear weapons and releasing fertilizers and plastics on land and in water.自20世纪中叶以来，人类对地球产生了非常强烈的影响。这些影响包括气候变化、物种丧失和污染。人类的影响如此之大，以至于科学家们表示，一个新的地质时代从那时开始。科学家们称之为人类世时代。这个词来自希腊语中的“人类”和“新”。科学家们说，这个时代开始于 1950 年至 1954 年之间。全世界有证据表明，燃烧化石燃料、投放核武器以及在陆地和水中释放化肥和塑料对地球健康产生有害影响。“It's quite clear that the scale of change has intensified unbelievably and that has to be human impact,” said University of Leicester geologist Colin Waters. He led the Anthropocene Working Group. The scientists say the power of humans is comparable with the meteorite that crashed into Earth 66 million years ago. The meteorite killed off the dinosaurs and started the Cenozoic Era, or what is known as the age of mammals. While that meteorite started a whole new era, the working group is proposing that humans only started a new epoch. An epoch is a much smaller geological time period. The scientists are proposing a small but deep lake outside of Toronto, Canada, to place a historic marker. The lake is called Crawford Lake. The group aims to decide on an exact start date of the Anthropocene by measuring plutonium levels at the bottom of Crawford Lake.莱斯特大学地质学家科林·沃特斯表示：“很明显，变化的规模已经令人难以置信地加剧，而这必然是人类的影响。” 他领导了人类世工作组。科学家表示，人类的力量可与6600万年前坠落地球的陨石相媲美。陨石消灭了恐龙，开启了新生代，即所谓的哺乳动物时代。虽然那颗陨石开启了一个全新的时代，但工作组提出，人类只是开启了一个新时代。纪元是一个小得多的地质时期。科学家们提议在加拿大多伦多郊外建造一个小而深的湖泊，以放置一个历史标记。这个湖叫做克劳福德湖。该小组的目标是通过测量克劳福德湖底部的钚含量来确定人类世的确切开始日期。Crawford Lake is 29 meters deep and 24,000 square meters wide. It was chosen over 11 other sites because the yearly effects of human activity on the earth's soil, atmosphere and biology are clearly shown in its layers of sediment. That includes everything from the effect of nuclear weapons to pollution to rising temperatures.There are clear signs in Crawford Lake showing that, starting in 1950, “the effects of humans overwhelm the Earth system,” said Francine McCarthy. She is part of the working group who specializes in that site as an Earth sciences professor at Brock University in Canada. The Anthropocene shows the power — and hubris — of humankind, several scientists said. Hubris is a great or foolish amount of confidence.克劳福德湖深29米，宽24000平方米。它之所以比其他 11 个地点被选中，是因为人类活动每年对地球土壤、大气和生物的影响在其沉积层中清晰可见。这包括从核武器的影响到污染再到气温上升的一切。克劳福德湖有明显迹象表明，从 1950 年开始，“人类的影响压倒了地球系统，”弗朗辛·麦卡锡说。她是加拿大布鲁克大学地球科学教授，专门研究该站点的工作组成员之一。几位科学家表示，人类世展示了人类的力量和傲慢。狂妄自大是一种极大或愚蠢的自信。“The hubris is in imagining that we are in control," said former U.S. White House science adviser John Holdren. He was not part of the working group of scientists. He disagrees with the group's proposed start date. Instead, he wants one much earlier. Holdren said the power of humans to change the environment is far greater than their understanding of the impacts. Geologists measure time in eons, eras, periods, epochs and ages, with eons being the longest. The scientific working group is proposing that Anthropocene Epoch followed the Holocene Epoch. Holocene started about 11,700 years ago at the end of an ice age. The proposal still needs to be approved by three different groups of geologists. It could be signed at a major conference next year. Naomi Oreskes is a science historian with Harvard University and a working group member. She said if there is no change to harmful human activities, “we are headed for tragedy.”美国前白宫科学顾问约翰·霍尔德伦 (John Holdren) 表示：“狂妄自大的想法是认为我们掌控一切。”他不是科学家工作组的成员。他不同意该工作组提议的开始日期。相反，他希望早得多 霍尔德伦表示，人类改变环境的力量远远大于他们对环境影响的理解。地质学家以亿万、纪元、时期、纪元和年龄来测量时间，其中亿万是最长的。科学工作组提议人类世紧随全新世之后。全新世始于大约 11,700 年前的冰河时代末期。该提案仍需得到三个不同地质学家小组的批准。该协议可能会在明年的一次重要会议上签署。内奥米·奥雷斯克斯 (Naomi Oreskes) 是哈佛大学的科学史学家，也是工作组成员。她说，如果有害的人类活动不改变，“我们将走向悲剧。”

For human beings, Earth is a supremely human place. A world of concrete, steel, glass, plastic, cars, paved streets and highways, and lots of other human beings, generating mountains of waste. Here and there, pockets of nature for human beings.Dutch chemist Paul Crützen coined a term for Earth's human age — the Anthropocene. Crützen proposed that it be declared a new epoch in Earth history, terminating the one geologists say we've been in for the past 12,000 years, the Holocene.This summer, a scientific panel will shift Crützen's proposal up a notch.The Anthropocene Working Group (AWG) was set up in 2009 by a commission of the International Union of Geological Sciences. Its task — defining the Anthropocene, geologically.Crützen's idea was that the Anthropocene began with the 18th-century Industrial Revolution. In 2019, a decade of research under its belt, the AWG decided it actually began around 1950, at the start of what American environmental historian John McNeill dubbed the Great Acceleration, in the wake of World War II; a period marked by massive fossil-fuel burning, resource extraction, pollution, global trade and population growth, and the parallel rise of atmospheric carbon dioxide, surface temperature, biosphere degradation and so on.The AWG's next task was to identify one spot on Earth where the telltale signs of human activity are best observed in mid-20th-century sediments. The technical term for this is a mouthful — a Global Stratotype Section and Point. The more popular one: a “Golden Spike.”To be precise, that Golden Spike would be the thin sequence of layers in a core pulled from the bottom sediments of a lake, bay or estuary, or from a peat bog, ice sheet, coral reef or stalagmite, somewhere on Earth, containing the chemical and material signatures of human activity dating to the mid-20th century. Key among these — spheroidal carbonaceous particles (fly ash) from coal burning, microplastics, heavy metals, isotopes of carbon and nitrogen associated with fossil fuel burning, and radioactive Plutonium-239 from atmospheric nuclear weapons testing that peaked in the 1950s.After years of investigation, the AWG came up with a list of 12 candidate Golden Spikes — in Japan, China, Canada, the US, Denmark, Italy, Poland, Australia and the Antarctic. Each candidate site assembled a scientific team to study their cores in the minutest detail.Francine McCarthy, lead scientist for Crawford Lake, in southern Ontario, is proud of her sedimentary cores.“We do have the best site,” McCarthy said. “I have to accept some kind of maternal pride.”McCarthy has reason to be proud. Crawford Lake has been recording human activities for thousands of years. That's because it's very deep, and its bottom sediments are permanently isolated. Those sediments consist of many layers, laid down year after year, all precisely dated.They record the history of coal burning, the rise of atmospheric carbon dioxide and atmospheric nuclear weapons tests, all peaking around 1950.So do sediments from the Baltic Sea, Japan's Beppu Bay, Sihailongwan crater lake in China and the Śnieżka peat bog at the heart of Poland's polluted “Black Triangle.” San Francisco Bay estuary cores are rich in invasive species, mercury and SCPs. Coral samples from the Gulf of Mexico and Cairns, Australia, are also competitive.The competition is tense. To be chosen as the Anthropocene's Golden Spike, a candidate site must receive 60% of votes from the AWG's 23 voting members. Multiple rounds of voting have taken place over the past year.As the AWG prepares to announce its choice, prominent geologists disagree that the Holocene Epoch ended, and the Anthropocene began, a mere 70 years ago.“In geological terms, that's today. It's just yesterday morning,” said Phil Gibbard, a geologist at Cambridge University. ”We have no clue about, seen from thousands of years in the future, whether this would be more than a blip.”Only time will tell if the Anthropocene is a blip, said Simon Turner, AWG's secretary. Turner, standing in a hallway at University College London, around the corner from the geology department, reflects on the popularity of the Anthropocene idea in nonscientific circles.“The thing with the Anthropocene, people get it,” Turner said. “They get the idea of, like, human activity on the planet. The Holocene … I can probably pull someone over here now and say, 'have you heard of the Holocene?' And they will not have heard of it … and geology is just down the corner, so you would hope someone has.”The Anthropocene Working Group will announce its winning Golden Spike sometime this summer, or in the early fall, in Berlin. Its proposal will then pass up the geo-bureaucratic hierarchy — first to the Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy, then the International Commission on Stratigraphy and finally, the International Union of Geological Sciences.However, approval of that Golden Spike — either as the base of a new epoch, the Anthropocene, or just the latest stage of the Holocene (in which case, it would be named after its Golden Spike; the Crawfordian, for instance) — could take years.

There's a lot of debate about the idea that the global changes brought about by humans define a new geological epoch, dubbed the Anthropocene. Should such an epoch be added to the official geological time scale? If so, what aspect or aspects of anthropogenic change should be used, and exactly where do we place the golden spike that will define the base of the Anthropocene? Such questions come under the purview of the International Commission on Stratigraphy, whose current secretary general is our guest in this episode. Phil Gibbard is Emeritus Professor of Quaternary Palaeoenvironments at the University of Cambridge. In 2009, he was a founding member of the Anthropocene Working Group tasked by the International Commission on Stratigraphy to examine the status, hierarchical level, and definition of the Anthropocene as a potential new formal division of the Geological Time Scale. He explains that no consensus on the Anthropocene has been reached, and it remains controversial as to whether there is even a need for such an epoch at all. Go to geologybites.com for podcast illustrations. And if you're enjoying the series, I'd be grateful if you could rate the podcast and leave a review.

Hello Interactors,Today we begin the summer series on the environment. I didn’t seek learning about the physical world intentionally; I was more interested in maps. But as a geography major it’s unavoidable. Now I’m glad I was exposed to the workings of the natural world as we’re confronted with its wrath on a daily basis. Which begs the question, When did this calamity all start and what should we call it?As interactors, you’re special individuals self-selected to be a part of an evolutionary journey. You’re also members of an attentive community so I welcome your participation.Please leave your comments below or email me directly.Now let’s go…ENVIRONMENTAL DISCLOSURE FROM SNOWY JEFF DOZIER I typically didn’t sit in the front of the class, but I was running late and the seats in the circular shaped domed Campbell Hall were full. It was a required class, Physical Geography 101, taught by geography legend, Jeff Dozier. By this point, Jeff had already earned a reputation for being a snow expert. Students would clamber to join him as a research assistance climbing up and skiing down Mt. Shasta studying snow hydrology. Nobody knows snow like Jeff. Who did Disney call to explain the dynamical elements of snow crystals to animators of the popular movie, Frozen? Dozier.I ended up sitting in the front row from that point forward; not so much because I was interested in the topic, but because I wanted to see if I could hear what he was mumbling before the start of every class. He would pace back and forth on stage talking to himself as if nobody was there. Occasionally our eyes would lock, he’d blink a couple times staring at me, and then unexpectedly snap out of it. I think he clued on to me later in the term as the blank catatonic stare morphed into a sly grin and a gentle nod. Maybe I was more interested in observing this star-studded snow expert than I was physical geography.His research over the last 40 years has been groundbreaking. In addition to dangerous and difficult field work in the nooks and crannies of mountainous cliffs and creeks revealing marvels of the molecular structure of snow, Jeff was equally comfortable behind a screen as a pioneering pixel prognosticator. As high quality digital imagery of the earth started flowing from satellites circling the globe, he realized much could be gleaned from the array of tiny white dots of varying intensity shining back at him through zoomed-in pictures of snow covered mountains; much of which inaccessible by foot or by ski – even by the most motivated graduate student.With the radiance of a single pixel at one end and the physics of the silicon imaging sensor at the other, Jeff could determine mathematically how the atmosphere effected the radiation of light reflecting off the microscopic ice crystals that make up a snowflake. Later, with the help of a colleague, he also discovered this technique could be used for the opposite of snow – fire. Examining pixelated satellite imagery from the Persian Gulf, they detected anomalous glowing spots that dotted the landscape. These dots turned out to be small methane burn-off flames used in oil refineries. It was 1980 and for the first time a tiny fire could be detected from space. Soon he was able to determine land surface temperatures just by analyzing a satellite image. Remote sensing, spectroscopy, and biogeochemisty have come a long way in 40 years; so have fires – as dire global warming melts precious snow away like teardrops rolling down the creeks on the face of mother earth. DIRTY SNOW AND ALLUVION FLOWWhile Dozier was looking at the earth’s surface for climatic clues, other researchers were digging deep. Since the late 60s scientists have been extracting two-mile long ice cores out of snowpack in Greenland and Antarctica. More cores around the globe have been plucked out of glaciers before they all recede. Stacked in these cylindrical cores are stratified lines representing a geological timeline. Toward the top are layers of white loosely granulated snow crystals with barely discernable lines of annual layers of snowfall, then come darker compressed layers of rock, silt, and sand, with the bottom layers typified by dense dirty-brown ice. Some of these cores contain 750,000 year old natural elements.These layers of ice allow scientists to travel back in time revealing snow fall levels, the direction the wind was blowing as the snow drifted, and the air temperature. By looking at the ratio of ‘light’ and ‘heavy’ atoms found in oxygen trapped in the ice, scientists can’t discern exact daily temperatures, but they determine average air temperatures or identify trends over select periods of time. Other clues can be found as well; like elements in the atmosphere. As snow piles miles deep they compress lower layers ice pockets of atmospheric gas that become securely enshrouded. These gassy envelopes reveal to scientists the amount of methane and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere at the time of the snow fall. As water turns to snow the process captures other atmospheric particles like dust, smoke, pollen, or ash from volcanic plumes as they crystalize and fall to the earth. Taken together scientists can correlate volcanic ash concentrations, for example, with rising carbon dioxide levels. By carbon dating the ash particles, they can determine when the volcano occurred. These can then be cross-referenced with other sediment layers found in past oceans and land forms to create a more complete picture of the earth’s physical history. Imagine what future paleontologist and paleoclimatologists will discover in future layers of snow and rock. Sure there will be the usual fossilized remains of the disappearing and evolving species of plants and animals; biomass that took what was given from the earth and then gave it back in a natural symbiosis of reciprocity; and then is all blended together in piles of swirling dust, decomposed carcasses, sticks, and leaves in compressed layers of time. But what will stand apart from the medley of bio-miscellany will be the detritus of an animal that has taken more from the world than it was given. Humans.LET’S PLAY THE NAME GAMEThere’s a proposed term that describes this geological period of profound human impact; a marker for future generations denoting an impression on the world that is different from any other in the history of time. The proposed term is Anthropocene. But there’s a problem. Scientists can’t agree on the term. They can’t even agree on the motivations to name such a period, when it began, or if it has even begun. As recently as March 2021 the two biggest stakeholders on the topic, the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) and the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS), both refused to approve and adopt the term as submitted by the Anthropocene Working Group, a subcommittee of the ICS. One of the most contentious issues is determining exactly when the outsized human impact on the world’s systems began. The more scientists uncover and learn, the earlier the proposed starting date becomes. Other questions remain around the scale of impact, exact start dates, and the period of time over which the impact occurred. Some argue that it began with the discovery of fire coupled with the cooking of meat. This combination increased caloric protein for developing brains which led to fires used to manipulate local living conditions.  Or maybe it was the period of mammalian extinction when the world lost over half of its large animals; a time when Homo sapiens emerged out of Africa to spread throughout the world. Or was it just ten thousand years ago when farming emerged independently and coincidently in Africa, Eurasia, the Americas, and New Guinea? Perhaps it was two thousand years ago and the organization and formation of societies like the Roman’s in Europe, the Han dynasty in China, and others in India, Mexico, and Peru. After all, these societies, like ours today, clear-cut land and mined for minerals at large, albeit isolated, scales. This leads to the period I wrote about in my spring series on cartography – the sixteenth century’s European colonization around the world. This facilitated interactions between people and place across oceans resulting in a global exchange of regional fruits, vegetables, and animals; evidence of which is visible in our sedimentary strata. It also created a world economy that America and Europe relished as they exploited land, radically diminished Indigenous populations through disease, slaughter and war, and stole humans from their homes in Africa and beyond for free slave labor. All of which gradually intensified energy consumption with the dawn of the industrial age. But most seem to be focusing in on the Great Acceleration that began around the 1950s. This time marks obvious shifts in social and earth systems – all resulting from the interaction of people and place. It’s the point on exponential behavioral, economic, and physical geography curves that feature steady linear growth throughout human history and then sudden sharp climbs up dangerously steep slopes.Complex interdependent systems exhibiting exponential growth become unpredictable on their way to a tipping point. We are sitting on a slope made of the outcomes of unprecedented and unpredictable global inputs and outputs from interdependent social and environmental systems too complicated to describe or fully understand. Which leads some scientists to contend perhaps we have yet to even begin a true Anthropocene given we don’t really know what we’re dealing with.TAKE A CUE FROM A SNOWFLAKEIt’s worth mentioning that much of this hang wringing, research, discussion, and debate is dominated by the very societies that induced this monstrous blow to our existence. This has led to the emergence of satirical derivative names like:“Capitalocene, highlighting the dominant role of the capitalist economy;Plantationocene, highlighting the important seminal role of colonialism capitalism, slavery, and the plantation economy; Technocene, emphasizing the role of technological systems; Anthrobscene and Manthropocene, highlighting a male logic of resource exploitation and the largely male composition of expert panels deciding on the Anthropocene; “Anthropo-not-seen”, highlighting indigenous perspectives and role of colonialism; Anglocene, noting the dominant role of the English-speaking world in producing the earliest industrial greenhouse gas emissions and also dominating the contemporary debate about the definition of the Anthropocene…”I’ll add a couple more — Anthropomorphicene, the attribution of human traits to earthly processes. Perhaps our nurturing mother earth isn’t a mother figure at all, but a fierce planetary tempest exacting indiscriminate damage on all it encounters. Egocentricene, the obsession with our own well-being at the expense of other humans and non-humans. Perhaps we are getting what we deserve as we continually amuse ourselves to death. Sorry other plants and animals. Is it possible the human race, along with many more species, will expire before our greedy capitalistic consumerist ways do?Maybe there is more uncertainty than there are species on the planet. It’s as complicated as the earth we inhabit. Perhaps more explanations exist than the ones we are handed. I did learn one thing in Jeff Dozier’s Physical Geography 101 class; while snowflakes all have six arms, no one snowflake is ever like another. They all have a common symmetrical beauty that typifies the order molecules can produce as they take their rightful place in crystalline formations. But they are all unique. As we seek to better understand the role human interaction has on this place, or even how we name it, let’s all acknowledge what we have in common while celebrating what makes us different. Nobody wants the human race to end, but no single answer will ever emerge for how to avoid it. So as you grumble to yourself in contemplation of your own existence, don’t forget to occasionally look up, make eye contact, nod, and smile at those around you. Subscribe at interplace.io

Human beings have transformed the planet. Over the last century we’ve disrupted the climate and impacted entire ecosystems. This has led some to propose that we’ve entered another chapter in Earth’s history called the Anthropocene. Anand Jagatia speaks to Dr Simon Turner from the Anthropocene Working Group, given the task of gathering evidence on whether it will become an official unit of geological time. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/sciencepod

Dr. John McNeill is a University Professor in the School of Foreign Service and the Department of History. He teaches world history, environmental history, and international history at Georgetown, and also directs Ph.D. students, mainly in environmental history. John is considered by many to be a pioneer in the field of environmental history. He has written six books, the most notable being his work from 2000 titled, Something New Under the Sun: An Environmental History of the Twentieth-Century World, which argues that human activity during the 20th century led to environmental damage on an unprecedented scale. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2017, and elected President of the American Historical Association for 2019. Table of Contents: :00: Intro 1:18: What do academics get out of their activity in a professional association? 3:28: What are the big issues facing AHA right now? 4:10: Has the mistreatment of historians gotten worse recently around the world, in terms of harassment, imprisonments, etc.? 6:46: Are there those presenting their work which changes the interpretation of history who are not certified historians? Or are they presenting their work elsewhere? 7:51: How have you seen history as an outward looking field? 10:17: It seems there will be a period where a historian will have both documents and genetic information available, which would allow for interesting observations? 11:32: In your own history, can you recall the intrigue you initially brought to your choice of subfield in environmental history? 14:25: So what would have happened if you hadn't done the marine biological appointment? 15:21: It seems it was an unanticipated post-doc which allowed for a lot of interdisciplinary experience? 15:50: Students are often curious about how faculty find an area that becomes a lifelong motivating force? How do you describe the eras of your own career and what keeps driving you? 18:01: Does your focus lead you into more collaborations? 19:24: Give us some insight into the activities of the Anthropocene Working Group? How does this cooperation happen effectively? 20:24: What are you working on now? 22:13: Conclusion Music: Main Theme: Corporate Technology by Scott Holmes Background: Horizon Soundscapes by RF Soundtracks

A stunning sensory experience and cinematic meditation on humanity’s massive reengineering of the planet, ANTHROPOCENE: THE HUMAN EPOCH is a years-in-the-making feature documentary from the award-winning team behind Manufactured Landscapes (2006) and Watermark (2013) and narrated by Alicia Vikander. The film follows the research of an international body of scientists, the Anthropocene Working Group who, after nearly 10 years of research, argue that the Holocene Epoch gave way to the Anthropocene Epoch in the mid-twentieth century as a result of profound and lasting human changes to the Earth. From concrete seawalls in China that now cover 60% of the mainland coast, to the biggest terrestrial machines ever built in Germany, to psychedelic potash mines in Russia’s Ural Mountains, to metal festivals in the closed city of Norilsk, to the devastated Great Barrier Reef in Australia and massive marble quarries in Carrara, the filmmakers have traversed the globe using state of the art camera techniques to document the evidence and experience of human planetary domination. At the intersection of art and science, ANTHROPOCENE: THE HUMAN EPOCH witnesses a critical moment in our geological history. Co-directors Jennifer Baichwal, Nicholas de Pencier and Edward Burtynsky bring a provocative and unforgettable experience of our species's ever-expanding breadth and devastating impact. For news, screenings and updates go to: kinolorber.com/Anthropocene: The Human Epoch For more information on Anthropocene and filmmakers go to: theanthropocene.org/ For additional information on Jennifer Baichwal at mercuryfilms.ca Social Media: facebook.com/mercuryfilmsinc twitter.com/mercuryfilms instagram.com/mercuryfilmsinc

The Trump administration has ordered federal agencies to stop publishing worst-case scenario projections of climate change. This week, On the Media examines the administration’s pattern of attacks on climate science. Plus, a look at the dark money behind environmental deregulation. 1. Kate Aronoff [@KateAronoff], fellow at the Type Media Center, on the White House's suppression of climate warnings. Listen. 2. Jane Mayer [@JaneMayerNYer], staff writer at The New Yorker and author of Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right, on the billionaires supporting the modern conservative intellectual framework. Listen. 3. Jan Zalasiewicz, Anthropocene Working Group Chair, on the traces that today's humans might leave behind for future civilizations, and Benjamin Kunkel [@kunktation] on whether the Age of Capitalism might be a more appropriate term to describe our epoch. Listen.

Dig deeper into the science of the Anthropocene. No PhD required, we promise. What are the top ten things you need to know now about the science of our changing planet? We talk to Jan Zalasiewicz and Colin Waters, geologists from the Anthropocene Working Group, and Gaia Vince, author of the award-winning book Adventures in the Anthropocene. Warning: You may never look at your pen the same way again. For more information: Anthropocene Working Group: http://quaternary.stratigraphy.org/working-groups/anthropocene/. Gaia Vince’s book, Adventures in the Anthropocene and her other projects: https://wanderinggaia.com/. This episode was produced by Nadia Abraham, Shiralee Hudson Hill and Matthew Scott at the Art Gallery of Ontario. For more information on the podcast and the Anthropocene exhibition, visit our website: www.ago.ca.

Dig deeper into the science of the Anthropocene. No PhD required, we promise. What are the top ten things you need to know now about the science of our changing planet? We talk to Jan Zalasiewicz and Colin Waters, geologists from the Anthropocene Working Group, and Gaia Vince, author of the award-winning book Adventures in the Anthropocene. Warning: You may never look at your pen the same way again. For more information: Anthropocene Working Group: http://quaternary.stratigraphy.org/working-groups/anthropocene/ Gaia Vince’s book, Adventures in the Anthropocene and her other projects: https://wanderinggaia.com/ This episode was produced by Nadia Abraham, Shiralee Hudson Hill and Matthew Scott at the Art Gallery of Ontario. For more information on the podcast and the Anthropocene exhibition, visit our website: www.ago.ca.

Dig deeper into the science of the Anthropocene. No PhD required, we promise. What are the top ten things you need to know now about the science of our changing planet? We talk to Jan Zalasiewicz and Colin Waters, geologists from the Anthropocene Working Group, and Gaia Vince, author of the award-winning book Adventures in the Anthropocene. Warning: You may never look at your pen the same way again. For more information: Anthropocene Working Group: http://quaternary.stratigraphy.org/working-groups/anthropocene/ Gaia Vince's book, Adventures in the Anthropocene and her other projects: https://wanderinggaia.com/ This episode was produced by Nadia Abraham, Shiralee Hudson Hill and Matthew Scott at the Art Gallery of Ontario. For more information on the podcast and the Anthropocene exhibition, visit our website: www.ago.ca.

One of the best tales of all time from geologic history is the story of the meteor impact that killed the dinosaurs. As it turns out, though, there are still many unanswered questions about what exactly happened the moment the meteor connected with our planet. In fact, until recently, scientists had yet to collect sediment cores from the center of the impact crater. On today’s show, producer Michael Osborne talks with Sean Gulick, co-chief scientist of an expedition that recently drilled the Chicxulub crater off the coast of Mexico. Sean revisits the moment when the asteroid hit, and he discusses what the scientists hope to find from their drilled samples. Also, we have a short segment featuring a conversation with Science Magazine reporter Paul Voosen about a news update from the Anthropocene Working Group.

with John McNeill One of the world’s foremost environmental historians, Prof. John McNeill is a principal voice in discussions of the Anthropocene and Great Acceleration. He is a member of the Anthropocene Working Group that next year delivers its recommendation on whether to adopt the Anthropocene as a new geological … more >>