DailyDirt: Changing Our Environment

One of the properties of life itself is that it changes its environment. All life does it, not just us humans. But we might be the only animals that might care about our legacy on the world. We haven't completely figured out what mark we've left on the Earth (or if it's permanent), but we've definitely changed some things, for better or worse.

• Have we created a new era? The anthropocene isn't exactly a well-defined era just yet, but some folks are narrowing down the characteristics of a new geological epoch. We've made lots of concrete, plastic, atmospheric carbon dioxide and radioactive isotopes, but will anyone be around to care about these technofossils in a few thousand years? [url]
• Maybe we'll figure out how to clean up some of our mess in the ocean -- and start to get rid of all the plastic junk in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. There's still plenty of pollution in lakes and other bodies of water, so we won't be able to get rid of all the evidence of our hydrocarbon-based economy. [url]
• We could also just learn to embrace the new world we've created -- and get accustomed to the vast Alaskan farmlands. Farming in the subarctic is getting a bit easier now that the ground isn't a frozen tundra all year long anymore. [url]

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