How humans changed the face of Earth
Scientists across disciplines have been debating potential dates for the beginning of the Anthropocene—the period during which human activity has become a dominant influence on climate change and the global environment (1, 2). Recorded history has provided information with which to chart Earth’s environmental changes during recent centuries. But how can it be determined if and when human activities transformed Earth during the time before written records? This question is prompted in part by the hypothesis that prehistoric deforestation and rice farming might explain the preindustrial upturn in atmospheric methane and carbon dioxide concentrations after ∼7000 years ago.
| By Neil Roberts |
Aug 30th, 2019 |
An empirical global assessment of land use from 10,000 years before the present (yr B.P.) to 1850 CE reveals a planet largely transformed by hunter-gatherers, farmers, and pastoralists by 3000 years ago, considerably earlier than the dates in the land-use reconstructions commonly used by Earth scientists. … Here, we present a global assessment of archaeological expert knowledge on land use from 10,000 years before the present (yr B.P.) to 1850 CE, showing that existing global reconstructions underestimate the impact of early human land use on Earth’s current ecology.
| By Lucas Stephens, et al. |
Aug 30th, 2019 |
ArchaeoGLOBE
ArchaeoGLOBE
