The Anthropocene Epoch | GEO GIRL

[@The_Worst_Guy_Ever]

Your students are extremely lucky to have an instructor who’s so clearly enthusiastic about her subject matter. You certainly have a gift for pedagogy that just makes learning fun without needing to resort to performative nature of most others on this platform.

[@pawned79]

I’m sitting at my kitchen table watching them level the woods across the street for new townhomes. I acknowledge that my house also stands where the woods used to be. :(

[@johnvoelker4345]

have you ever wondered why there is a Holocene epoch? isn’t the Holocene epoch merely the latest interglacial of the Pleistocene epoch? geologists created the Holocene epoch to showcase Man’s impact on the environment but that’s exactly why the Warming Alarmists want to create the Anthropocene the Holocene is the Anthropocene it makes no sense to split the Holocene up into Holocene and Anthropocene rather we should simply rename the Holocene as the Anthropocene and make it an age it’s too short to be an epoch epochs typically last millions of years

[@PedroBigeriego]

hi Geo girl, thank you for your videos. They are amazing and great food for thought! I believe the Anthropocene is a proposed geological epoch not yet stratigraphically recognised by the Intl Union of Geological Sciences. But conceptually is flawless...we humans as a geological force causing a new mass extinction, no doubt. I will keep wathching your videos and learning. Thanks again for your great work! Pedro

[@GEOGIRL]

Thanks Pedro! Yes, absolutely, I know it is not an official epoch yet, but I just totally forgot to mention that in the video, my bad haha. I am so glad you are enjoying my videos, thank you so much for the support and encouragement! Are you a geologist yourself or just very interested in geoscience? :)

[@PedroBigeriego]

@@GEOGIRL Hi Rachel. I am a biologist very much interested in life history (Paleontology), astrobiology, animal evolution and conservation. I did recognized the quality of your videos after watching some of them and the one you introduce yourself and say we need to read the rocks. I know that. Earth history, with its paleoclimates, environments, extinctions, radiations, etc is registered in the rock files, the fossil record. Your videos are so accurate, fun, fast and have tons of useful information. I will surely go through all of them. Congratulations and many thanks!

[@gabriellplplp]

Great video, but just remembering, the Anthropocene is not yet considered a geological era/age/epoch validated by the International Commission on Stratigraphy. It was submitted a few years ago but was not accepted. It can be a term used for the moment and consequences of the presence of humans on earth, but it is always important to emphasize that it is not a valid nomenclature in geological work nor can it be defined stratigraphically.

[@GEOGIRL]

Yes! I have mentioned in a few of my other videos that the anthropocene isn't an official part of the time scale, but forgot to mention it here, thanks for pointing that out here so people realize that :D

[@a.randomjack6661]

@@GEOGIRLHey! Brand new subscriber here. I just listened to this lecture *The Anthropocene: Where on Earth are we Going? (Full)* Jump to 40 minutes 34 seconds and listen for just about one. minute, it's the conclusion. Interesting lecture, I would recommend listening to it all. And a kind thank you for your video.

[@GEOGIRL]

@@a.randomjack6661 Just watched it, thanks for the suggestion, very nice thoughts! I will have to go back and watch the full video now :) Also, you are welcome, I am glad you enjoy my content, thanks for subscribing!

[@a.randomjack6661]

@@GEOGIRL It's a pleasure to be here. P.S. I also like Radio Ecoshock dot org a lot, he mostly interviews environmental/climate scientists, and perhaps students ;-)

[@DrSmooth2000]

​@@a.randomjack6661oh that'd be fun but Alex will want to put her on the spot about predictions

[@cluke1620]

Being an environmental scientist it always amazes me that the things you discussed would seem obvious if discussed about the environment of something say like the international space station where death awaits you just outside. However when discussing it on our big fuzzy world people seem to shrug it off as it could never happen. I would also mention something I learned about water chemistry in limonology class where the buffering capacity in various solutions have plateaus and when you are titrating different liquids you can reach breakthrough points. To date I have not heard anybody calculating what the breakthrough level for the alkalinity of the ocean is. Is there going to be a point where the ocean say drop from a pH of 6.3 down to 4.8 in a matter of a year because we have exceeded a breakthrough point? People better get used to eating jellyfish. LoL 😂

[@GEOGIRL]

Yes, I agree about the jelly fish thing lol. But to answer your question, yes, there is a 'breaking point'. This is because solutions can have 'buffers' that keep their pH from changing too rapidly. For example, the ocean has limestone/carbonate material that keeps its pH from dropping too fast because this material acts as a buffer (as the ocean acidifies carbonate material dissolves, and as it dissolves, its component ions bind with H ions in solution, therefore raising the pH (because low pH just means high concentration of H ions in solution and vice versa)). So once all that carbonate material dissolves, that buffer will no longer exist and the ocean could theoretically drop in pH much much quicker than it has been. However, there are a couple disclaimers to this info: one, is that carbonates aren't the only buffer in the ocean, there are other materials that could stabilize the ocean's pH, and two, the likelihood of ALL the carbonates in the ocean dissolving is very slim, especially since the ocean's pH is an average and there are many places in the ocean that are kept basic due to hydrothermal fluid influx. So, overall, the carbonates dissolving due to ocean acidification is very worrisome and yes, at some point a breaking point can be reached, and I do think we will see an increase in the speed at which the ocean acidifies as we exhaust its available buffers, but I am optimistic that we will not reach the ultimate no buffer breaking point. Wow, that was a long reply, sorry! haha, hope it makes sense ;)

[@jansegal6687]

worry not, just like their greenhouse operator counterpart, salt water aquarium operators are pumping in co2 to get them corals to grow reef faster. kzbin.info/www/bejne/pHOyaK2NhJatjrs www.reef2reef.com/threads/introuducing-co2-into-a-saltwater-tank-to-increase-zoozanthelle-propigation-experiment.281408/ co2 along with water is lifes best friend

[@DrSmooth2000]

​@@GEOGIRLlonger is better Could do a whole vid on this. We know even PETM had way higher ocean Temps and certainly 1000ppm... for 100ky Why didn't the shell life dissolve?

[@mikeshambaugh-miller8272]

A couple of questions for you - 1: How did your students take the lecture? Like you, I love/hate giving this lecture. As climate anxiety surges within this age cohort I struggle to find positives to give the students. In fact, I have had to refer a few students to counseling during this portion of the course. 2: As a geologist ( not everyone can be a geographer ;-) ), do you think we are better off using climate indicators, human-induced large-scale land transformation, or the creation of unique radioactive elements and their deposition in the soils, oceans, and ice as indicators of when the Anthropocene began?

[@billkallas1762]

By the years 2100, St Louis will have summers like Dallas, and Chicago will have summers like St Louis. I hate to think what Dallas will be like.

[@MrSammer1972]

Lol. They have no clue what the climate will be like in 2100. Predictions using computers simulations is far from perfect

[@cadmunn]

I live in Arizona. Similar to Dallas I can't even imagine what it will be like. Literally uninhabitable especially with water resources already so thin.

[@DrSmooth2000]

​@@cadmunnsuppose like Mexico 🇲🇽

[@nigelstorry7591]

from the previous lecture, the Big Slothy Bear, because i met a smaller relative, he fell into our boat, which was an interesting part of an adventure, with the Piaroa Tribe. Thanks for the lectures Geo Girl, this World is warming faster now, and California got lots of Rain.

[@wildmanofthenorth1598]

Humans are the only critters that use poison so freely, it seems to me that any migration is limited by that as well. I am witnessing the hindered break down of a dead Raccoon that was hit by a car 5 months ago. It's still laying on the ground now without rotting.

[@sdsa007]

1960-1950? is the beginning of the Anthropocene.... its an interesting choice... perhaps it was when we first empirically verified the cause and effect of our own industrial processes esp fossil-fuels through government and company research like at Humble Oil.... meaning the idea that we have virtually infinite resources to exploit using current industrial processes was not realistic.... and without better, newer processes we instead chose to politicize and deny the science.... but also I know that the first Industrial revolution began around 1760 with the steam engine driven by coal, another marker point is the Trinity test just before they dropped the nuke bombs to end WW2.... what a skule of mangement problem.

[@nicholasmaude6906]

In the last year, Rachel, we've had a LOT of extreme weather events here in New Zealand mostly involving heavy rain and flooding causing billions of dollars of damage.

[@lethargogpeterson4083]

Scary, but thank you for sharing the information.

[@a.randomjack6661]

Dear Geo Girl. *Methane Hydrates* I would recommend to listen to what the #AGU has to say about those, they have a You Tube channel I've been following for years. P.S. I'm quite sure that "one book" is not enough ;-) I listen to lectures every day, so thank you for making time more interesting.

[@GEOGIRL]

Hehe, yes, I am aware 'one book' is never enough. I typically use one main textbook for my videos and then add in or confirm information in my lecture from other sources, so don't worry ;). Also, I will check it out! I love AGU's channel so I am sure they have great content on hydrates, thanks!

[@a.randomjack6661]

@@GEOGIRL To sum it up, reputable climate scientist David Archer was telling his students about 5 years ago the Arctic methane bomb aka seafloor hydrates was much like a conspiracy theory. It is a topic I've been believing in for years, ever since the French CBC made a show about it in 2008. Since 2017 or so, I came across some AGU scientists lecturing on the topic, even mentioning the "Sponge Bob" simulation (not kidding) and giving physics explanations for why that scenario is quite improbable. It may have already happened in the paleo record, or it could have been mistaken for an then unknown tipping point, the marine cloud feedback tipping point... I have a small playlist on the Arctic Methane Bomb, this video is in it "The Methane 'Time Bomb': How big a concern?" with a few others...

[@RamMohammadJosephKaur]

Loving your videos and you have got me interested and excited about these topics though my education has been something completely different.

[@GEOGIRL]

Oh wow, well that makes me really happy that you find the topics in my videos interesting! :D I know a lot of my friends that don't have science backgrounds think this stuff is so boring haha!

[@RamMohammadJosephKaur]

​@@GEOGIRL I work in marketing but have always loved studying history. Though I've always delved deeply into history ( civilisations, empires, cultures, customs, practises, religions, occupations, philosophies etc ) most of which dated from 4000BC and onwards to today ( Mesopotamia, Sumerians, Egypt, Ptolemaic, Harappans, Persia, Archimedes, Hellenic Greece,Sellucids, Chinese empires, medieval europe, arab conquests etc ) , only now have I started reading more about the prehistoric times. Though there are many a terms that bounce over my head in your videos, a quick google search does give me a fair bit of idea of what your trying to say, so I've been able to keep up.( Kinda ) 🙂

[@GEOGIRL]

@@RamMohammadJosephKaur That's awesome! Good for you for learning all of that. And sorry for the terminology, I started making these videos/lectures for undergraduates or even grad students in some cases but recently I have tried to be a bit better about using jargon because I noticed a broader audience of people with diverse backgrounds watching my videos. So I'll get better haha ;) Thanks for the support, I hope you continue to watch :D

[@georgehagstrom1461]

The economy drives climate change. Housing drives the economy. Driving back and forth pays for the house and vehicle. There is an alternative life style that is comfortable and more fun, but people are addicted to tradition.

[@davidwilkie9551]

There's so much to teach people who "already know", and the point of fact, Euler's e-Pi-i 1-0-infinity instantaneous temporal thermodynamical superposition identification of holography-quantization harmonics is of crucial importance to Math-Physics understanding of circumstances. It's built into us as humans to preemptively address a perceived threat in order to survive, but of course the opposite is true for the perceived potential "threat" when it is too late to recall annihilation. Defense relying on the "protection" of completely destroyed possible threats will inevitably achieve the designed purpose of total annihilation, it's totally MAD. Nothing we can say can substitute for helping each other to learn Actuality for ourselves, aka Constitutional Democracy, attention the will of the people applies. Good video, oldie but goodie content.

[@JoesFirewoodVideos]

Sunday Funday = new content from GEO GIRL. You’re so close to 1000 subscribers I bet you can taste it.... it took me 7 years to get 1000 subs. I hope you’re having an awesome & safe Memorial Day weekend. I ❤️ GEO GIRL Oh btw what’s your (first) name?

[@GEOGIRL]

Oh, yea, I forget people don't know my name, my name is Rachel! :) And thank you so much for the encouragement. 7 years, wow, you have some serious determination! It paid off too, seeing as though you are well past 1000 now! ;D I feel so lucky that I am already getting close to 1000, so glad my videos are desirable to such a large audience. It is for sure much larger than any class I've ever taught haha! I hope you are having an amazing Memorial Day weekend too!

[@whatabouttheearth]

She has 1.27k on June, 29, 2021

[@GEOGIRL]

@@whatabouttheearth Haha, are we keeping track now? I love it! It'll be cool to look back (hopefully I won't disappoint ;)

[@louren1951]

Thankyou for making this video, so many still dont realize whats happing.

[@fiverolltacos]

Thank you for this video,

[@GEOGIRL]

Of course! Glad you enjoyed it ;)

[@resilientfarmsanddesignstu1702]

A question. If the trees advance poleward and the arctic ocean becomes ice free is it possible that phytoplankton and trees could pump enough oxygen into the atmosphere to cool the planet. With the gulf stream thermohaline circulation no long functioning due to fresh water runoff from melting glaciers could this warmer more humid arctic lead to more arctic snowfall and regrowth of the continental ice sheets? If not what effects would occur and what starts the reaccumulation of continental ice sheets once they have melted?

[@DrSmooth2000]

Polar Forest will take carbon but will take centuries for us to get back to under 280ppm Solar cycle weakness is a better bet if in a hurry... but no way to influence that time frame

[@DrSmooth2000]

Will take a long time

[@nicholasmaude6906]

We aren't just in the Anthropocene, Rachel, we're in the early stages of the Anthropocene mass-extinction which unlike the previous five mass-extinctions is caused by the activities of a single animal species.

[@jasoncuculo7035]

Is this official? They changed the designation so that the Holocene ended in 1950! This means my parents were born in a different epoch!?

[@GEOGIRL]

No, sorry, I should've been more clear, it is not an 'official' designation, we are still in the Holocene technically, it is just that many scientists have now 'nick-named' this period from 1950 onward the Anthropocene. It's kind of like the recent video I made about the 'Boring Billion' that is also a nick name ;)

[@jasoncuculo7035]

@@GEOGIRL Thanks. Allow me to explain. I started college in 2016n at age 47. In 1981 official scientific measurements were changed Ex. milli micrometer became nanometer). The term Anthropocene (unlike boring billion) sounds authentically scientific, so it seemed logical that.....

[@jasoncuculo7035]

@@GEOGIRL You should see how much official faunal taxonomy has changed officially since I was in high school in the early-mid 1980s! Genetic testing used in the 1990s caused a complete rearrangement. In the 80s Monera, Protista, Fungi. Plantae, and Metaphyta. Now, Archaea, Thermophile's, Plantae, Fungi, and megaphyte I believe.

[@DrSmooth2000]

​@@jasoncuculo7035 it's fun but unscientific

[@jasoncuculo7035]

@@DrSmooth2000 Obviously, trying to ruin my joke?

[@FakoredeAjibola]

Hey how you doing ? I need your help so urgent. I have an assignment about the Anthropocene being given as a project and I will need your help to sort some things out. Please how can I connect with you maybe WA or IMessage please.

[@jimmyquigley7561]

I'm bingeing your vtdeos... The word "anthropocene" has the same meaning as "world"...were (human, as in were-wolf) + ald (meaning age, epoch. old Anlo-saxon). Stratigraphically it is a new age. Sediment hav a lot of stuff that never existed before: plastics and atomic bomb test from the fifties etc. There's also the extinctions which began with the mega-fauna as we spread around the world and is now accelerating. Wher to hammer the golden spike?

[@nicholasmaude6906]

How sensitive, Rachel, are phytoplankton to ocean acidification?

[@jasoncuculo7035]

The US Army Corp of Engineers can assemble a giant hospital in 24 hours. I have seen designs for prefabricated standardized thermal thorium liquid salt reactor construction. Perhaps, it is time to have some of these reactors rapidly but soundly constructed and allowed to operate even before full certification, because the idea put forth by the Carter administration to construct large numbers of nuclear reactors was derailed by the Three-Mile Island disaster. The aforementioned plan could be done safely and perhaps compensate for the forty-year head start we would have had (since 1979) and the 15 years it usually takes to build and certify a nuclear reactor today. Then electricity generation without carbon emissions.

[@johnp9988]

I know this is an older video but thank you having the courage to put this out there. It needs to be talked about despite what climate deniers have to say. 🍻

[@parazitmaly]

great, complex, interesting but god we are ... i hope you are right with this brain positive thing

[@kartik_bharad_patil6589]

Thank you

[@alitemel4168]

I am new here, and I love this channel.

[@GEOGIRL]

Aw, well welcome

[@nyoodmono4681]

Calling it Anthropocene is anthropocentric. It should stay named the holocene and it was warmer in the holocene optimum, it was also warmer in the roman and medieval warming period. There is no mass extincton going on. There is no increase in floods, drouts, storms. The real foot print is the roads cutting enviroments and agriculture with mass monocultures, pretty simple a matter of land use or abuse causing a decline in biodiversity. For example our warming trend already started in the 1910s-1950s with a FRACTION of our emissions.

[@GEOGIRL]

Like I mention in other videos and should've mentioned here, it is not the warmth or magnitude of CO2 in the atmosphere that is dangerous or causes extinctions. It is the rate of change that is dangerous and causes extinctions. Today, CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere are increasing faster than they have since the Cretaceous Exintinction event, and that rate is the worrisome part, not the amount os CO2 or temperature increase. Sorry I should've clarified that in this video, my bad. ;) Also, I agree poor land management and agricultural practices are huge issues and should be emphasized as well!

[@nyoodmono4681]

@@GEOGIRL "Today, CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere are increasing faster than they have since the Cretaceous Exintinction event" . I think this is not certain yet. This is based on our ice core data which say there was around 320ppm at peak and therefore our 420ppm now is unique. The problem here is that the ice cores are compacting the numbers, since the centuries are staunched together, so to speak. The tips and the lows are capped ppm wise. Since every ice age (ordovician, permian and our ice age) were capable to absorb all CO2 to around 50ppm, this is what will probably happen today too. In other words: Why should the oceans not be able to absorb the extra CO2 that we produce, if the past ice ages did this with way higher ammounts? We have not understood the carbon cycle yet thoroughly.

[@yayamal1]

I need lecture on the morphology of Dinosaurs Skeleton

[@GEOGIRL]

Thanks for the suggestion, I will work on that! :)

[@omeryalcnsar2391]

Harika ...bunları PANGEA da yayınlayacağım İNŞÂALLAH...yarından itibaren...

[@GEOGIRL]

Thanks so much, so glad you liked it ;D

[@omeryalcnsar2391]

@@GEOGIRL Bende Seni tanıdığım için çok mutluyum...... Saygılar sevgiler....

[@omeryalcnsar2391]

@@GEOGIRL Şimdi Senin bir videonu PANGEA için hazırlayacaģim İNŞÂALLAH..

[@gabeesp9654]

So does Anthropocentrism exist and does it have to do with Anthropology?

[@GEOGIRL]

haha, I am sure many people believe in anthropocentrism, but I do not think the world is "human-centric". :)

[@GEOGIRL]

@@gabeesp9654 Thanks for the support! I appreciate it :) I am glad you like my videos.

[@gabeesp9654]

@@GEOGIRL sure no problem

[@williamupdike4863]

A freshman point of view, but shouldn't we be looking at this time as perhaps the end of the Pleistocene, and that this is a potential boundary? Truth is, we really do not know until this is over, and there is no way to even guess this one. Should be obvious that humans have changed temps (13.5 to 15C ?), but new names for epochs will not cure the problem of hopeless calvinist gasaholics. It doe seem possible to get back to a glacial period in a couple of thousand years, perhaps sooner......but.........again....who knows ?

[@KOKAYI69]

Have U spoken to your Representatives with this information yet?

[@volkerengels5298]

Blue Ocean Event before 2030 is no risky bet.

[@DrSmooth2000]

Phytoplankton rebounded since air time?

[@mi4208]

Great I know this question has nothing to do with video but what you do like you are doing graduation master or PhD or any job etc

[@GEOGIRL]

Yep! I am a PhD student studying marine biogeochemistry, I just finished my second year! 😊

[@donteservidone913]

I noticed that you did not give any specifics on potential solutions to slow climate change. If we want to curb our fossil fuel dependency, we need to invest in nuclear fission and nuclear fusion. Fusion is close to being on the market, and fission technology has gotten way safer and more efficient. Innovations in fossil fuel energy also reduces carbon dioxide and pollution emission. I think we need free speech in order to discuss solutions to climate change. Let's not focus too much on the bad stuff that might happen. Let economics be free to search for safer solutions to our energy needs.

[@GEOGIRL]

Yes I totally agree! The purpose of this video was just to talk about what is happening and feedback loops, but I have some other videos that talk about solutions, one I am super excited about is coming out very soon! It is all about C sequestration, it'll be out on Dec 4th, can't wait for you to see it :D

[@jasoncuculo7035]

Melt the poles and the sea level reaches the elbow of the bent arm of the statue of liberty.

[@jansegal6687]

whats so good about living in an ice age anyway ? those were the days when earth was covered in tropical rain forests from pole to pole and a man didnt need artificial heating to survive this hostile climate.

[@GEOGIRL]

No one is saying that humans cannot survive major climate change swings. It is just that many humans were wiped out during such events, and I bet they would've tried to prevent that had they been able to. :)

[@jansegal6687]

@@GEOGIRL through history its when it gets colder that crops fail and mankind suffer, and they migrate to eek out a living elsewhere, like for instance the freezing europeans that colonized USA because the crops back home would freeze over before they ever ripened. i myself migrated from europe to greener pastures where im not frozen numb 24/7, and a quick glance confirm biomass and biodiversity thrives in warmth and plenty, as do i

[@a.randomjack6661]

@@jansegal6687 The problem is rate of change, forest, corals, the biosphere is collapsing.

[@jansegal6687]

@@a.randomjack6661 no it is recovering from a certain co2 extinction thanks to us humans. and rate you say ? you think 1c per century is going to stress out plants but 15c every 12 hour doesnt ?

[@a.randomjack6661]

@@jansegal6687 Compare that to 4° or 5° over 10 000 years, not to mention it will be at least 2 more degrees hotter by 2100. And the feedback loops...

[@Parker307]

I wish your audio was better. The room is echoey and the mic sounds somewhat far from you.

[@mi4208]

😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 Today video give me depression

[@GEOGIRL]

I feel you!😅

[@wolfgangvon4261]

nice

[@GEOGIRL]

Thanks!

[@mohsenalshagdari1686]

keep it up

[@jasoncuculo7035]

Think Elon Musk's 1000 reusable Methane powered 394-foot-tall Mars rockets that he wants to build might cause earlier triggering of Global Warming trigger points?

[@louren1951]

Space x is plan B. Tesla is plan A. Lol. Hopefully tesla can offset starship.

[@keijojaanimets819]

Hi G chick😆

[@greyman44]

No such epoch is recognized by in geologic science. The Anthropocene is the politicalization of science by environmental hysterians.