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End of the world as we know it
Man has changed the earth to such an extent that it has brought to an end one epoch of the planet's history, geologists have claimed.
- By Mark Prigg, Evening Standard
- Published: 00:44 February 3, 2008
London: Man has changed the earth to such an extent that it has brought to an end one epoch of the planet's history, geologists have claimed.
Experts from the Geological Society of London and the University of Portsmouth have named the new epoch the anthropocene. It takes over from the holocene epoch, a period in the geological history of the planet that began in Europe at around 9,600BC.
Dr Andrew Gale of the University of Portsmouth says the change is largely due to man's influence on the planet over the past 200 years. "Human activity has become the number one driver of most of the major changes in earth's topography and climate," said Dr Gale.
"You can't have 6.5 billion people exploiting every resource of a planet without creating physical, chemical and biological environment changes."
The geologists found numerous examples of mankind's effect on the planet, such as tiny particles of plastic in our sand which they say could easily get into the food chain.
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