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The Anthropocene Epoch Began With 1945 Atomic Bomb Test, Scientists Say
hypnosec writes: Scientists have proposed July 16, 1945 as the beginning of the Anthropocene Epoch. That was the day of the first nuclear detonation test. They say "the Great Acceleration" — the period when human activities started having a significant impact on Earth – are a good mark of the beginning of the new epoch. Since then, there has been a significant increase in population, environmental upheaval on land and oceans, and global connectivity. The group says in their article (abstract), "The beginning of the nuclear age ... marks the historic turning point when humans first accessed an enormous new energy source – and is also a time level that can be effectively tracked within geological strata, using a variety of geological clues."
Does anybody consider this science? Does it really matter what we refer to the current "age" as? Why is this shit on Slashdot?
"Anthropocene Epoch." Cross that out and replace with "The point of which humans started to have a global effect on the Earth."
I had to look up those two words.
I think that incident marks a bigger point of change. It's when the US decided to become a more global empire, to help the Brits keep their hold. It was also much closer to the beginning of instant communications and powered transportation, two things which overwhelm the first A-bomb, which produces nothing but fear.
This reminds me of the classic Asimov short story, "The Last Trump"; you should go read it. Here's the Wikipedia link, but it's full of spoilers:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T...
We had access to coal and oil for a lot longer than nuclear, and fossil fuels today still represent 10x as much energy generated/used as nuclear. linky
The figures are from 2008 - before fukushima, and nuclear plant construction is going nowhere, while China produces 1 new coal plant every day.
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
This could delay the y2k unix equivalent fuck up scheduled for 2038 a couple thousand years, so we can focus on getting stable wireless/GPU drivers in the meantime. :D
The Anthropocene Epoch ended when the Bad Slashdot Style Epoch began after the following style code was introduced:
#comments { clear:both; display:block; position:relative; padding: 0; margin: 0 0 0 122px; padding-right: 1.5em;z-index:1;}
Get rid of the 122px left margin--it's wasting a lot of space.
Incandescently stupid attempt at cloaking the usual climate alarmism in a layer of pseudo-science. And the propagandists who bring us this nonsense have it exactly backward - nuclear power could be the key to minimizing man's negative impact on the environment, if blinkered greens would allow it.
It's going to matter in Civilizations 6, damnit. And that's pretty freakin' important.
If it's classified as "he period when human activities started having a significant impact on Earth", then wouldn't the industrial revolution mark the start of that?
Or were coal-powered factories all over Europe belching horrible soot and smoke into the atmosphere not good enough?
Does it make you happy you're so strange?
get your shit in gear americans
captcha: brothel
"Most operating systems designed to run on 64-bit hardware already use signed 64-bit time_t integers. Using a signed 64-bit value introduces a new wraparound date that is over twenty times greater than the estimated age of the universe: approximately 292 billion years from now, at 15:30:08 on Sunday, 4 December 292,277,026,596"
That is the same day the Gojira was awakened.
The nuclear blasts produce more obvious changes in the geological strata than the coal and other industrial changes do, so it's easier to trace. When looking at geological timeframes, the 200 years or so difference is a blink of an eye. It's not especially useful now while both periods are so recent, but it will become more useful as time goes on.
And did the turns speed up ?
Because before that, there weren't ideas nor words for them. :D Deal with it, human civilization. You so puny.
So 2015 A.D. works out to be 70 A.E. Well at least after the new new year's (16 July traditional months).
70 years is often held as the Biblical "one generation" (some say 40 years, etc). Could be an "interesting" year this 2015... .. see Fiddler on the Roof).
70 A.D. was the end of the old Judaism as the Temple was destroyed and they had to reinvent the religion ("tradition, tradition"
January 1, 1970.
26 scientists on the Anthropocene Working Group published this. There are 38 people listed as members. Why did nearly a third of them not put their names on this?
Film at eleven.
... I know when the Cretaceous period ended because the dinosaurs (except birds) went extinct and stuff, but I don't know when the Cretaceous period started or the Anthropocene period, either, but Bennett Haselton.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
When we stopped hunting and gathering and stayed in one place. Not bending to the earth but bending the earth to our needs. That's the beginning of the Anthropocene.
should really begin in 1879 - the year edison first lit his lightbulb.
2cents
I'd put it down to world wars I & II which caused a massive acceleration in development of all types including land and air transport, computers, electronics, nuclear.
The nuclear bomb coincided with jet flight, the transistor was 2 years later.
And much of this development started with the industrial revolution in the 1800s.
It was also a time when women were prominent in industry and the war effort, suffraget late 1800s to women's liberation 1960s effectively doubled the working population and changed society.
Nuclear is an event which wasn't causal but only a useful marker.
It's just another fuck-up by the industrial age but I'd feel the petrochemical/plastics industry has had a much more pivotal and destructive effect than nuclear.
Go well
Today is January 16, 69 AE (Anthropocene Era)
Someone born in 1946 CE will now be referred to as: Born in 1 AE
Someone born in 1945 CE will now be referred to as "Born in 0 AE"; the year of the Anthropocene Epoch.
1944 CE will now be referred to as "1 BAE"; 1 year before the Anthropocene Epoch, etc
In this manner, every year renumbered.
And of course, tomorrow will be 1/17/69.
In a million years, the start of the industrial age and the start of the nuclear age will be a geological blur.
Besides, if we have to put a date on it, 1970-01-01T00:00:00Z is about as good a time as any other time in the 19th/20th/21st centuries.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
I have the book "E = mc^2", by David Bodanis.
In the notes accompanying the text there is (on Page 295 of the paperback) a note regarding a phrase on Page 191 of the main text), regarding steel production, Scapa Flow, and radiation monitors on stellar and interstellar instruments:
In 1919 the Imperial German battlefleet surrendered to the British, and eventually the entire fleet was scuttled in the relatively shallow waters of Scapa Flow, Scotland. There's a lot of pre-WW2 iron in that watery graveyard.
Steel-making requires a *lot* of air, and ever since the first atmospheric nuclear explosion, the air has been tainted with some of the radiation from these explosions... so it's uneconomical to make steel without these impurities.
If, however, you want an ultra-precise radiation monitoring instrument on the moon, or elsewhere, then the Scapa Flow iron hulks have proved immensely valuable in providing pre-atomic-age steel.
So, Scapa Flow steel is on the moon, on Pioneer, on Galileo, and in other places where non-irradiated steel is vital.
This is a one example where the first atmospheric nuclear test irrevocably changed the nature of human capabilities. This is a good case that supports the contention of the authors that the first nuclear explosion was a epoch-marking event.
Bodanis references Dan van der Hat, in "The Grand Scuttle: The Sinking of the German Fleet at Scapa Flow in 1919" (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1982).
...are living in the Age of Aquarius. lolol :)
Because it is a load of PC navel gazing pseudo-religious bullshit?
Just a guess, but hey.
Could it be any clearer that this is a bunch of 'oh my god the sky is falling!' anti nuclear scaremongers desperately
trying to create a shred of link between unclear power (by FAR the least damaging base load power producer EVER)
and some idea of 'mankinds rape of our our beloved earth mother'?
Other than that particularly transparent attempt at politicalisation, the particular date seems basically stupid, it certainly
marks no major change in behaviour, society structure, technical capability (hint, use of radioactives, or even fission
didnt start then..)... Hell, the invention of the first computer could be considered far more important, or international public
networks, or about 10 dozen other developments that have global impact.
And if they want an accurate date marker, ffs, astronomy is well known as THE method, not BS approximate soil sampling.
Or are they childish enough to think that with modern land development approaches (burying waste, earthworks for construction, etc)
that soil strata are work a shit for any future research?
Hmmm..
40 years of electricity. .. uhm .. say 125 hours or 5.2 days? ... whatever 166th great grandchildren will thank you for the mess they see in the mirror : )
10'000 years of mutagens.
if your (nuclear-electrical) dinner lasts ~30 min then you would have to prepare it for
-or-
one nuke-plant electricty lasts 2/3 of one generation (assume 60 years in one generation) and your great-great-great-great
you do the math.
Tying the antropocene epoch to the first nuclear detonation is a brazen attempt to smuggle the Garden of Eden / fall of man metaphor into this discussion under cover of a blinding fireball.
How about using Madame Curie instead, and picking a nice round date like 1900?
I also noted this passage in the Wikipedia article.
Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose. [/.sic]
Meh