- cross-posted to:
- nyt_gift_articles@sopuli.xyz
survivalmachine ( @survivalmachine@beehaw.org ) 12•3 months agoWe measure geological epochs in millions of years. We just barely started the Holocene 12k years ago. While speaking about human impact makes sense in shorter timescale fields like sociology, I’m not sure we need to start a new geological timescale. Humanity is just a brief blip in the holocene that may not even survive to another epoch if whatever intelligence that follows us continues to use the same systems we developed.
meyotch ( @meyotch@slrpnk.net ) 1•3 months agoJust as a counterpoint, brief moments of large meteor impacts are of great interest to geologists. I bring that up just to say that the brevity of the event isn’t a disqualifying factor, even for a science that usually has to think about the deepest of deep time.
dillekant ( @dillekant@slrpnk.net ) 6•3 months agoGeologists? Don’t mining companies own them?
A big chunk are funded by or work for the fossil fuels industry for obvious reasons.
KISSmyOS ( @KISSmyOS@feddit.de ) 4•3 months agoYes, in the same way that all biologists are owned by Monsanto and all computer scientists are owned by Microsoft.