The world is hot, and getting hotter. But higher temperatures aren’t the only impact our species is having on mother Earth. Urbanization, deforestation, and dumping millions of tons of plastic into the oceans … these are all ways in which humans are leaving their mark.
So are we still in the Holocene, the geological epoch that started a mere 11,000 years ago at the end of the last ice age? Some say we’ve moved on to the age of man – the Anthropocene.
It’s the dawn of an era, but can we survive this new phase in the history of our planet?
Guests:
Pat Porter - Relative
Jonathan Amos – Science writer for the BBC in London
Gaia Vince – Writer, broadcaster, former editor for New Scientist, news editor of Nature, and author of Adventures in the Anthropocene: A Journey to the Heart of the Planet We Made
David Grinspoon – Astrobiologist, senior scientist at the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Arizona
Francisco Valero – Emeritus physicist and research scientist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego
Originally aired February 23, 2015.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Surviving the Anthropocene | Big Picture Science podcast - Listen or read transcript on Metacast
