34404 Y84 Scientists Divide The History Of Our ...

Q&@
PLANET INTO EPOCHS
SUCH AS THE PLEISTOCENE, THE PLIOCENE AND THE MIOCENE?

Officially, we live in the Holocene epoch! Yet it may be better to call the last 70,000 years
the Anthropocene epoch: the epoch of humanity?!!! For during these millennia homo sapiens became
the single most important agent of change in the global ecology!? Depicted as a global biomass of large animals:
ABOUT 100 million tons of wild large animals; 300 million tons of 'humans' & 700 million tons of other domesticated animals?!

This is an unprecedented phenomenon: since the appearance of life, about 4 billion years ago, never a single species has changed
the global ecology all by itself!? Even though there had been no lack of ecological revolutions and mass-extinction events, thése
we're not caused by the actions of a particular lizard, bat or fungus! Rather, they wère caused by the workings of mighty
natural forces such as climate change, tectonic plate movement, volcanic eruptions & asteroid collisions?

Some people fear that today we are again in mortal danger of massive volcanic eruptions or colliding
asteroids! Hollywood producers make billions out of these anxieties... Yet in reality, the danger is slim.

Mass extinctions occur once every many millions of years. Yes, a big asteroid wìll probably hit our planet
sometime in the next 100 million years, but it is very unlikely to happen next Tuesday. Instead of fearing asteroids,
wé shóuld féar oursèlves! For Homo sapiens has rewritten the rules of the game: thìs single ape species has managed within
70,000 years to change the global ecosystem in radical and unprecedented ways? Our impact is already on a par with that of ice ages and tectonic movements.

Within a century, our impact may surpass that of the asteroid that killed off the dinosaurs 65 million years ago...

That asteroid changed the trajectory of terrestrial evolution, but not its fundamental rules, which have remained fixed since the appearance of the first organisms 4 billion years ago. During all those aeons, whether you were a virus or a dinosaur, you evolved according to the unchanging principles of natural selection. In addition, no matter what strange & bizarre shapes life adopted, it remained confined to the organic realm - whether a cactus or a whale, you were made of organic compounds...
12 apr 2019 - bewerkt op 16 apr 2019 - meld ongepast verhaal
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