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A group of scientists announced July 11 that a small lake in Ontario might hold the key to proving the Earth has reached a new period in geological time: the Anthropocene epoch, which is characterized by the tangible impact humans have had on the planet's climate and systems.
While the Earth is still officially in the Holocene epoch, some scientists think the Anthropocene began as early as 1945, when the first atomic bomb dropped. Others think it began as early as the industrial revolution. While debate is ongoing about the minutiae of whether and how this period will be defined in the geological record, there's no doubt our species has had an impact.
"Human beings have certainly influenced the planet," said James Cotter, a professor of geology at University of Minnesota, Morris. "We are the most profound geomorphic agents."
We've dropped bombs, developed industry and interfered with native plant life — all things that leave a mark on the geological record, Cotter said.
But our impact as a species is also visible in our surroundings here in Minnesota. "The forests are completely gone in Minnesota relative to 200 years ago. There's still some scattered forests in the North, but most of it has been turned into cropland," said Nate Hagens, executive director of the Institute for the Study of Energy and Our Future.
"Minnesota and Iowa had the deepest topsoil anywhere in the world, and most of that has been removed from planting and erosion and annual tilling," he continued. "It takes millennia for that to be regenerated."
While some may be quick to brand Minnesota a global warming-resistant safe haven — see all the talk of "climate-proof Duluth" — it is naive to assume we will be immune to all anthropogenic effects. Just recently, the opinion pages were inundated with gripes and musings about the nasty murk of Canadian wildfire smoke that choked the state for weeks — a development some attribute to human-caused climate change.
Those record high levels of unhealthy air led some to question whether we'll need to adapt to a new normal. It's a frightening prospect given the comfort we've taken in assuming our state will be spared from some of climate change's worst impacts. But climate is a mere symptom of something bigger. "What underpins the Anthropocene is the speed at which humans are extracting, burning and consuming," Hagens said.
And the ferocity with which we alter the environment is even unrivaled by natural forces much stronger than any individual person. "Human beings move more material than glaciers, rivers and wind combined each year," Cotter said.
But the blame doesn't fall on everyone equally, he explained. "It isn't all human beings. There are a whole bunch of Indigenous cultures that aren't doing any of these things."
The significance of the Anthropocene goes beyond the geological record; it also has the potential to affect our collective consciousness. If, in August 2024, the Anthropocene is officially recognized, that decision will also serve as an admission: We, as a species, have altered the planet to such an extent that our impact has been — quite literally — set in stone.
But that admission would pave the way for candid conversations about human impact on the planet — something climate-change-deniers and other assorted naysayers have been trying to avoid for years. "This is the first generation in history to truly have the potential to have a species-level conversation," Hagens said.
Noor Adwan is a May journalism graduate from the University of Minnesota and Star Tribune Opinion summer intern.
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