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| Environmental Journalism Today New and outstanding environmental stories in print and on the air, updated every weekday. | |
| Editor: Joe Davis
| Category: Other/International Published: January 25, 2008 Humans Have Pushed Planet Into a New Geological Era, Experts Say "The world of geology is about to be rocked by a controversial bid to reclassify the present era in planetary history as one in which human activities -- not natural processes -- are the definitive force shaping the top layer of Earth. It will come as a surprise to most non-experts, but just as we are living in the 21st century according to the calendar, we are creatures of what's called the Holocene in geological time. And it's been that way, according to scientists, for about 11,700 years -- a discernible boundary in Earth's history that is marked, among other ways, by evidence of meltwater lakes and gravel ridges left across the Canadian landscape when the glaciers retreated at the end of the last ice age. All of recorded human history has taken place within the Holocene. But now, a distinguished group of British geologists has provocatively proposed that the Holocene is over and that we have entered a new geological era -- the Anthropocene -- in which humans have left such a distinctive footprint on the Earth's surface through carbon pollution, nuclear fallout, urbanization and other traces of our immense technological power that it should be officially recognized by international scientific bodies as 'a formal epoch.'" Randy Boswell reports for Canwest News Service in the Vancouver Sun Jan. 23, 2008. Read it here: http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/features/going_green/story.html?id=6c880c59-4068-49d2-80e4-e0fdb36c6fa9&k=71777 EJToday is SEJ's annotated selection of new and outstanding stories on environmental topics in print and on the air, updated every weekday. See Headlines and The Gallery for more stories, and visit TipSheet, Calendar and SEJournal for more story ideas. It's easy to submit a story to EJToday and to search the story archives. The newest stories are listed first. To find stories more than a week old, use the search engine. SEJ also offers a free e-mailed digest called SEJ-beat summarizing the day's postings to EJToday. SEJ members are subscribed automatically; non-members may subscribe here. Note: EJToday links only to web sites that don't charge fees. Some sites require free registration. If you can't access a story, contact cmac@golden.net. To reach the digest editor, contact bbostic@capitolwire.com.
Last revised May 15, 2008 The Society of Environmental Journalists © 1994-2008 Society of Environmental Journalists |
