Global population is expected to increase from 6.7 to about 9.7 billion people
by 2050. Earth has gone through many icehouse-greenhouse cycles over its
4.5-billion-year history, and there is good evidence that human activities
have accelerated the warming trend globally since the Industrial Revolution.
Hotter temperatures, more drought and severe storms and sea-level rise are
some of the significant changes that we can expect to see in the future. Nature
does not discriminate and humans are just another species living on the
planet. While some areas of the world will feel these impacts more than
others, global change will impact us all. In addition to the global change
issues that we are all certain to face, the environmental damage that has been
caused by our species is impacting the environment and our way of life.
In 2000, the concept of the Anthropocene epoch was proposed by Crutzen
the 1995 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry. He believed that the impact of human
activities on Earth was sufficient to form a new geologic epoch and proposed
that the Industrial Revolution was the beginning of the Anthropocene. While
the creation of a new geologic epoch may be warranted, neither the International
Commission on Stratigraphy nor the International Union of Geological
Sciences has approved naming this slice of geologic time.
Nonetheless, soon after this concept was put forward, many scholars posited
that the beginning of the Anthropocene epoch should be earlier and based on
science. Opinions are varied. James Lovelock pointed out that the Anthropocene
epoch began during the Industrial Revolution, but according to
William Ruddiman, it can be traced back to the beginning of human farming
activities about 8000 years ago during the Neolithic epoch. At that time,
agriculture and animal husbandry replaced hunting and gathering methods of
survival, followed by the extinction of large mammals.
