anthropocene: the human epoch transcript

Text on this page is printable and can be used according to our Terms of Service. The Drowned Epoch It is the third in a trilogy that includes Manufactured Landscapes (2006) and Watermark (2013). The extinction event, known as the end-Ordovician, was one of the five biggest of the past half billion years. This proposed new epoch - dubbed the Anthropocene - is discussed at . Riverine quality of the Anthropocene was the title of a 2002 paper in the journal Aquatic Sciences. Available on iTunes. I finished school and then studied to be a crane operator. View in iTunes. %PDF-1.5 % A proposed geological epoch, the concept of the Anthropocene suggests that we are now in the age in which human activities have had a significant impact on the planet's ecosystems. Burtynsky's photographic and cinematic eye brings us to amazingly striking imagery of Anthropogenic geological impact all . May17,2010, The Holocene or wholly recent epoch is what geologists call the 11,000 years or so since the end of the last ice age. We visit the hideously polluted city of Norilsk, Siberia, home to the largest colored metal mine and heavy metal smelting complex in the world. Greenery and oxygen are insufficient for humans. Terraforming, we learn, is the act of altering the Earths surface for human needs. Humans have become the single most influential species on the planet, causing significant global warming and other changes to land, environment, water, organisms and the atmosphere. A feature length documentary following artist Edward Burtynksys photographic essay of the industrial revolution in China. The grandeur of the drone camerawork, however, becomes distinctly uncomfortable: this film is more interested in showing ruins than probing their causes or solutions. Soon, the term began popping up in other scientific publications. All rights reserved. The movie opens with the sight of a giant bonfire and then returns to it at the end, revealing the previously not-quite-identifiable object that was burning. The name comes from the Anthropocene Epoch, the last chapter of Earth history, defined by the human . It purports to be a cinematic meditation on the havoc humans have wreaked on the environment, yet the style-over-substance approach reduces these eco-conscious contemplations to a mere exercise in aesthetics, without any social or political context. Third in a trilogy that includes Manufactured Landscapes (2006) and Watermark (2013 . The Anthropocene Epoch is an unofficial unit of geologic time, used to describe the most recent period in Earth's history when human activity started to have a significant impact on the planet's climate and ecosystems. Jan Harrison's Dream Animals; October 3, 2020; It purports to be a cinematic meditation on the havoc humans have wreaked on the environment, yet the style-over-substance approach reduces these eco-conscious contemplations to a mere exercise in aesthetics, without any social or political context. The university has been one of American society's most durable institutions for more than a century -- and the modern research university its most sophisticated presentation. Microplastics Are Filling the Skies. Zalasiewicz now heads a working group of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) that is tasked with officially determining whether the Anthropocene deserves to be incorporated into the geologic timescale. My guide, Jan Zalasiewicz, a British stratigrapher, points to a wide stripe of gray. If you have questions about how to cite anything on our website in your project or classroom presentation, please contact your teacher. Anthropocene: Directed by Emir Skalonja. Furthermore, the ASMR-esque narration by Alicia Vikander constantly pits the Earth and the humans against one another, as if environmental destruction is an equal-opportunity act for all mankind. January 21, 2020. We are leaving a clear and unique record., The term Anthropocene was coined a decade ago by Paul Crutzen, one of the three chemists who shared the 1995 Nobel Prize for discovering the effects of ozone-depleting compounds. seen as more than simply a geologic epoch or a geopolitical event: it is a reflection of . It's those events that mark the crucial episodes in the planet's 4.5-billion-year story, the turning points that divide it into comprehensible chapters. In a recent paper titled The New World of the Anthropocene, which appeared in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, a group of geologists listed more than a half dozen human-driven processes that are likely to leave a lasting mark on the planet lasting here understood to mean likely to leave traces that will last tens of millions of years. A cinematic meditation on humanity's impact on the planet across six continents by the award winning team Jennifer Baichwal, Edward Burtynsky and Nicholas de Pencier. By ElizabethKolbert As carbon dioxide warms the planet, it also seeps into the oceans and acidifies them. Their job is to piece together Earth's history from clues that can be coaxed out of layers of rock millions of years after the fact. Addeddate 2020-04-25 08:59:03 Humans versus Earth: the quest to define the Anthropocene Researchers are hunting for nuclear debris, mercury pollution and other fingerprints of humanity that could designate a new geological. Meanwhile rising temperatures could eventually raise sea levels six meters (20 feet) or more. Grades 5 - 12 Photograph Coal Mine Germany Opencast coal mine in Hambach, Germany. The process is likely to take years. The resulting radioactive particles were detected in soil samples globally. who, after nearly 10 years of research, are arguing that the Holocene Epoch gave way to the Anthropocene Epoch in the mid-twentieth century, because of profound and lasting human changes to the Earth. That mark will endure in the geologic record long after our cities have crumbled. The Anthropocene Epoch is an unofficial unit of geologic time, used to describe the most recent period in Earths history when human activity started to have a significant impact on the planets climate and ecosystems. In 2016, they voted for a 1950s start. 1996 - 2023 National Geographic Society. Describe how the human impact you selected affects the ecosystem. ANTHROPOCENE: THE HUMAN EPOCH We have reached an unprecedented moment in planetary history. Crutzen has suggested that the Anthropocene began in the late 18th century, when, ice cores show, carbon dioxide levels began what has since proved to be an uninterrupted rise. The boundaries between epochs are defined by changes preserved in sedimentary rocksthe emergence of one type of commonly fossilized organism, say, or the disappearance of another. Stratigraphers like Zalasiewicz are, as a rule, hard to impress. In 2002, when Crutzen wrote up the Anthropocene idea in the journal Nature, the concept was immediately picked up by researchers working in a wide range of disciplines. If we have indeed entered a new epoch, then when exactly did it begin? But their warming effects could easily push global temperatures to levels that have not been seen for millions of years. As epochs go, the Holocene is barely out of diapers; its immediate predecessor, the Pleistocene, lasted more than two million years, while many earlier epochs, like the Eocene, went on for more than 20 million years. Crutzen, who started the debate, thinks its real value won't lie in revisions to geology textbooks. In English, Russian, Italian, German, Mandarin and Cantonese, with subtitles. Zalasiewicz now heads of the Anthropocene Working Group of the International Commission on Stratigraphy, which is looking into whether a new epoch should be officially designated, and if so, how. In Scramble for Clean Energy, Europe Is Turning to North Africa, From Lab to Market: Bio-Based Products Are Gaining Momentum, How Tensions With Russia Are Jeopardizing Key Arctic Research, How Illegal Mining Caused a Humanitarian Crisis in the Amazon. In a paper published in 2000, Crutzen and Eugene Stoermer, a professor at the University of Michigan, noted that many forms of human activity now dwarf their natural counterparts; for instance, more nitrogen today is fixed synthetically than is fixed by all the worlds plants, on land and in the ocean. This is when humans tested the first atomic bomb, and then dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. Were still now debating whether weve actually got to the event horizon, because potentially whats going to happen in the 21st century could be even more significant, observed Mark Williams, a member of the Anthropocene Working Group who is also a geologist at the University of Leicester. Between one edge of the one meter (three foot) thick gray band and the other, some 80 percent of marine species died out, many of them the sorts of creatures, like graptolites, that no longer exist. more-than-human . A stunning sensory experience and cinematic meditation on humanity's massive reengineering of the planet, Anthropocene: The Human Epoch is a years-in-the-making feature documentary from the award-winning team behind Manufactured Landscapes (2006) and Watermark (2013) and narrated by Alicia Vikander. on April 25, 2020, There are no reviews yet. Massive amounts of soil eroding off denuded land are increasing sedimentation in some parts of the worldbut at the same time the dams we've built on most of the world's major rivers are holding back sediment that would otherwise be washed to sea. Later we learn that the objects are the burning remains of 10,000 pounds of elephant tusks, $150 million street value. When you reach out to him or her, you will need the page title, URL, and the date you accessed the resource. The word Anthropocene is derived from the Greek words anthropo, for man, and cene for new, coined and made popular by biologist Eugene Stormer and chemist Paul Crutzen in 2000. TEDx was created in the spirit of TED's mission, "ideas worth spreading." Be the first one to, Advanced embedding details, examples, and help, Terms of Service (last updated 12/31/2014). The film, however, is sure to enjoy a long shelf-life in school classrooms. We are in the Anthropocene. Well, it was quiet in the room for a while. When the group took a coffee break, the Anthropocene was the main topic of conversation. A proposed geological epoch, the concept of the Anthropocene suggests that we are now in the age in which human activities have had a significant impact on the planets ecosystems. As Fatal Fungus Takes Its Toll, Can We Save Frog Species on the Brink? People have been farming for 8,000 or 9,000 years, and some scientists most notably William Ruddiman, of the University of Virginia have proposed that this development already represents an impact on a geological scale. Others think that the beginning of the Anthropocene should be 1945. The Plastic Epoch And their research is showing that that is in fact, the case. The adherents of this radical proposal argued that our planet has entered a new geological phase, the Anthropocene Epoch, an era of colossal human-driven alterations and . Stoppani's proposal was ignored; other scientists found it unscientific. The epoch could be said simply to have begun at a certain date, say 1800. Co-directed by Jennifer Baichwal, Nicholas de Pencier and Edward Burtynsky, here is an undeniably colossal filmmaking effort, shot across 22 countries. Anthropocene: The Human Epoch (Anthropocene Films / Courtesy of Edinburgh Film Festival) Extinction is the ultimate flag that marks the Anthropocene epoch, and towards the end of the documentary, Vikander's gentle voice tell us that "the Earth has had 5 major extinctions and we are now in the middle of the 6 th Great Extinction, this time . In 2016, the Anthropocene Working Group agreed that the Anthropocene is different from the Holocene, and began in the year 1950 when the Great Acceleration, a dramatic increase in human activity affecting the planet, took off. It supports independent organizers who want to create a TED-like event in their own community. Title: Anthropocene: The Human Epoch Directors: Jennifer Baichwal, Edward Burtynsky, Nicholas de Pencier Release Date: September 25, 2019 Running Time: 87 minutes Language: English Screenwriter: Jennifer Baichwal (documentary) Distribution Company: Kino Lorber Trailer Official Website Box office. But there is fierce debate behind the scenes. In my view it's raining, but here in the Southern Uplands of Scotland, I'm told, this counts as only a light drizzle, or smirr. Alicia Vikander, who narrates, cites disturbing statistics on the impact of deforestation on air quality, and there is a montage of species that are nearly or functionally extinct. Its the Journals measurement of the imminence of catastrophemilitary or environmentalfacing our planet. A cinematic meditation on humanitys massive reengineering of the planet, ANTHROPOCENE: The Human Epoch is a four years in the making feature documentary film from the multiple-award winning team of Jennifer Baichwal, Nicholas de Pencier and Edward Burtynsky. That, Zalasiewicz says, is what we are in the process of determining. Genre: Documentary Original Language: English Director: Jennifer Baichwal, Nicholas de Pencier, Edward Burtynsky Producer: Nicholas de Pencier Writer: Jennifer Baichwal Release Date (Theaters): Sep. Other scientists put the beginning of the new epoch in the middle of the 20th century, when the rates of both population growth and consumption accelerated rapidly. Full Transcript The list of human impacts on the planetis a long one. Topics anthropocene the human epoch. Lithium pools in the Atacama Desert in Chile appear so otherworldly you begin to worry that they are toxic even to look at. Happy Norilsk Day! Grotesquely Disneyesque, where people sing, There are no barriers when we are together, as friendships solve all hardships. Start typing to see results or hit ESC to close. For information on user permissions, please read our Terms of Service. (2013), the film follows the research of an international body of scientists, the Anthropocene Working Group who, after nearly 10 years of research, are arguing that the evidence shows the Holocene Epoch gave way to the Anthropocene Epoch in the mid-twentieth century, as a result of profound and lasting human changes to the Earth. She or he will best know the preferred format. Search metadata Search text contents Search TV news captions Search radio transcripts Search archived web sites Advanced Search. Winner of the TFCA Award for Best Canadian Feature of 2013, the film brings together diverse stories from around the globe about our relationship with water: how we are drawn to it, what we learn from it, how we use it and the consequences of that use. Standing in the smirr, I ask Zalasiewicz what he thinks this epoch will look like to the geologists of the distant future, whoever or whatever they may be. Someone suggested that Crutzen copyright the word. This extraction began with ancient Rome. This film is aesthetically engrossing, emotionally compelling, and necessary documentation evaluating human impact on our planet as it reports on issues we are experiencing currently with climate change. Earths history is divided into a hierarchical series of smaller chunks of time, referred to as the geologic time scale. In the presence of such found surreality, though, words arent always necessary. A cinematic meditation on humanity's massive reengineering of the planet, Anthropocene is a four years in the making feature documentary film from the multiple-award winning team of Jennifer Baichwal, Nicholas de Pencier, and Edward Burtynsky. Future geologists are more likely to grasp the scale of 21st-century industrial agriculture from the pollen recordfrom the monochrome stretches of corn, wheat, and soy pollen that will have replaced the varied record left behind by rain forests or prairies. What we are in the Atacama Desert in Chile appear so otherworldly you begin to worry that are. To anthropocene: the human epoch transcript at of a 2002 paper in the process of determining say 1800 created in the Desert! - is discussed at Advanced Search and Edward burtynsky, here is an undeniably colossal filmmaking effort, across! 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anthropocene: the human epoch transcript