A new era?

[arcturax]

In the keeping of time on Earth we are familiar with seconds, hours, days, centuries and millennium. But time goes deep on Earth, back to 4.5 billion years ago and geologists and paleontologists and those who study early life measure time in various periods. They live in a world measured by Eons, Eras, Periods and Epochs. Eons are the biggest

Comments

[maxgoof]

It is rather arbitrary, I think. The industrial age actually began well before that, and the impact on the environment is arguable. It seems far more a political move than a scientific one. I think a better point would be 1945 with the advent of the atomic age.

[jordan179]

Humans started seriously altering the Earth sometime around 40,000 BP when we started slaughtering the Australian megafauna, beginning the Sixth Great Phanerozoic Mass Extinction, which has been continuing ever since. Global warming is but the icing on the cake.