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AnthropoceneThe term Anthropocene is used by some scientists to describe the most recent period in the Earth's history, starting in the 18th century where the activities of the human race first began to have a significant global effect on the Earth's climate and ecosystems. The term was coined by the Nobel Prize winning scientist Paul Crutzen, who regards the influence of mankind on the Earth in recent centuries as so significant as to constitute a new geological era. The very early anthropocene might be considered to have onset following the most recent ice age, with homo sapiens by then dispersed across the continents, and the neolithic revolution. These brought forward agriculture and animal husbandry over hunter-gatherer subsistence, and were followed by a wave of extinctions, beginning with large mammals, and land birds, but by now having finished off or severely pressuring many others - even the biomass of life in the oceans. Mankind became not just another runaway species enjoying an ecological release, but as a keystone species, has shaped the global ecology and environment with ever increasing disequilibrium. These changes are big, and it is permanent. References - Crutzen, P. J., and E. F. Stoermer. 2000. The "Anthropocene". Global Change Newsletter. 41: 12-13.
External links http://www.fisherycrisis.com/
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