Welcome to the Anthropocene Age
Many people may not know that we’ve slipped into a new era: the Anthropocene Age. This new geologic age marks when humans began to permanently change the planet. This age offers the promise and wonders of our creative genius yet also the seeds of civilization’s complete destruction. And we are about to find out which path will prevail.
Our intellect, technology, ambition and desire for a better life have propelled us forward with rapid changes. And for the last 70 years, our unsustainable lifestyle fed on increasingly greater amounts of fossil fuels.
In 1988, we found that our road to progress had hit a huge pothole. Dr. James Hansen, then director of NASA’s Institute for Space Studies and our top climate scientist, testified before the U.S. Senate that due to our burning of fossil fuels, the Earth was warming. At full tilt. If we continued to burn fossil fuels, emitting greenhouse gasses, it would lead to both significant and damaging changes to the Earth’s climate. We’d witness rising sea levels, temperature spikes and devastating droughts.
The warning signs have cautioned us for almost 100
years, and Hansen’s testimony — 30 years old now — was clear, accurate and undeniable. Yet his warning, which ached for prompt action, was virtually ignored.
Alerting people to the problems associated with climate change and global warming has been ineffective. The fossil fuel industry deliberately sowed confusion about the truth of climate science. Consequently, ignorance, widespread apathy and outright hostility have prevailed. The fossil fuel industry — and those invested in it — kept the public from recog
nizing the dangers of climate change. Climate science, if properly understood, demands swift action to stop or at least slow the use of fossil fuels, that is coal, oil and natural gas.
Dr. Hansen’s forecast in 1988 was spot-on. Each year we burn more fossil fuels, and collect more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, where it can last close to a century. This extra CO2 acts like a thermal blanket, blocking the sun’s reflected heat from escaping back into space and resulting in an increasingly hotter Earth. How hot? The past 21 years can boast the hottest 20 days on record.
And just the past five years can take credit for the hottest five days on record. And finally, this year, the “unprecedented” 2020, is the hottest year on record. Ever.
Death Valley, Calif. recorded the hottest temperature measured on Earth at 130°F. Phoenix blazed a record of 58 days above 110°F. California weathered a nine-year drought, making the forest a tinderbox. It was exactly that global warming-induced drought that contributed to the worst California wildfires in history, claiming — over these past weeks
— 31 lives extinguished; 200 people still missing; 7,200 homes and businesses destroyed; and
4.7 million acres burned. The size of that acreage burned is larger than the whole of state of Connecticut,
Ocean temperatures have increased, absorbing the heat of five atomic bombs per second, more than 90% of excess global warming. Approximately, half the world’s coral reefs have died along with the loss of important fish spawning habitats. Record breaking storms and hurricanes have become more frequent and more powerful, putting in peril our homes, property, crops and lives. Sea levels have risen due to the rapidly melting polar ice, and flooding has become a major problem in other areas. Overall, the situation is much worse than you think and has brought us to the edge of a great cliff, a catastrophic precipice.
Thankfully, we still have time to avoid the worst consequence. Yes, we have started down the wrong road. But yes, we still have an opportunity to write a different ending to our story where the cliff is avoided.
The question is: Do we have the courage to act? Will we work to save ourselves from the calamity of climate change and global warming? It is up to us to act now.
Just say yes to leaders who will fight against climate change, yes to green energy and less consumption, yes to investing in solar and wind energy, yes to a shared planet that we can live in during the Anthropocene Age and beyond it.
Maxwell Warren was a chief engineering officer in the U.S. Navy and worked at United Technologies as a senior engineer and project manager for over 20 years before retiring. He is a leader in the Climate Reality Leadership Corps and lives in Avon.