The demise of the holocene biosphere

Andrew Yoram Glikson*

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

    1 Citation (Scopus)

    Abstract

    While the global warming train has left the station, with mean temperatures rising toward two degrees Celsius, the nuclear Damocles sword is hanging ever lower over humanity and nature, and the question needs to be asked, what kind of future is H. sapiens and numerous species facing? By the initial decades of the twenty-first Century AD, as the atmosphere-ocean-land carbon-oxygen cycle is transformed away from favorable Holocene conditions, which have allowed Neolithic civilization to emerge, critical observations emerge regarding the nature and the consequences of the period defined as the Anthropocene, the age of man. Already it is clear the biosphere has entered early to advanced stages of mass extinction of species, progressing at rates one to ten thousand times the pre-industrial rates. Perspectives from paleo-climate science indicate accelerated melting of the large ice sheets, elevated sea level rise rates, an increase in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events including storms and fires, and an imminent collapse of the Mid Atlantic Ocean Circulation. All along, under false flags, H. sapiens continues to develop hair trigger nuclear weapons on the scale costing near two trillion dollars per year, coming out of the mouths of hungry children (http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/robert-schlesinger/2011/09/30/the-origins-of-that-eisenhower-every-gun-that-is-made-quote ). Further dissemination of radioactive nuclides on land, oceans and atmosphere heralds the Plutocene, a geological era commenced with the Trinity atomic test in 1945 and due to persist for at least 20,000 years, recorded in plutonium-rich clay layers in ocean sediments. Pandora’s Box has been opened.

    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publicationModern Approaches in Solid Earth Sciences
    PublisherSpringer International Publishing Switzerland
    Pages1-37
    Number of pages37
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2017

    Publication series

    NameModern Approaches in Solid Earth Sciences
    Volume13
    ISSN (Print)1876-1682

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