anthropocene: the human epoch transcript

Narrated by Alicia Vikander, the film . The Anthropocene, by contrast, struck a chord. An incredibly important film that takes a hard look at the impact of humans on the planet without getting overly dark and continuing to be hopeful about the human condition, emphasizing the potential for positive change. Box office. Prompted by the groups paper, the Independent of London last month conducted a straw poll of the members of the International Commission on Stratigraphy, the official keeper of the geological time scale. More about Elizabeth Kolbert, Never miss a feature! Some scholars have questioned the need for an Anthropocene epoch at all. From concrete seawalls in China that now cover 60% of the mainland coast, to the biggest terrestrial machines ever built in Germany, to psychedelic potash mines in Russias Ural Mountains, to metal festivals in the closed city of Norilsk, to the devastated Great Barrier Reef in Australia and surreal lithium evaporation ponds in the Atacama desert, the filmmakers have traversed the globe using high end production values and state of the art camera techniques to document evidence and experience of human planetary domination. A final decision will require votes by both the ICS and its parent organization, the International Union of Geological Sciences. William Ruddiman, a paleoclimatologist at the University of Virginia, has proposed that the invention of agriculture some 8,000 years ago, and the deforestation that resulted, led to an increase in atmospheric CO2 just large enough to stave off what otherwise would have been the start of a new ice age; in his view, humans have been the dominant force on the planet practically since the start of the Holocene. 1996 - 2023 National Geographic Society. A particularly vile sequence orgasmically sets a day of marble quarrying in Carrara in Italy to Mozarts Don Giovanni. A shift in consciousness is the beginning of change.. Thus, for example, the marker for the Calabrian stage of the Pleistocene can be found at 39.0385N 17.1348E, which is in the toe of the boot of Italy. All rights reserved. A great movie to watch and will definitely give you inspiration to. Asociate Ceskych Filmovych She won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction for The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History, which was based in part on reporting she did for Yale Environment 360. Section snippets Origins of the Anthropocene concept. So the question was: When it does, will human impacts show up as "stratigraphically significant"? Atomic bomb tests like this one at Bikini Atoll in 1946 not only reassuredmilitary personnelthat the bomb worked, but also created a powerful new symbol of the destructive power of the human specis: the mushroom cloud. Happy Norilsk Day! Grotesquely Disneyesque, where people sing, There are no barriers when we are together, as friendships solve all hardships. Capture a web page as it appears now for use as a trusted citation in the future. This film is aesthetically engrossing, emotionally compelling, and necessary documentation evaluating human impact on our planet as it reports on issues we are experiencing currently with climate change. Documentary 2018 1 hr 27 min 89% PG National Geographic Society is a 501 (c)(3) organization. All rights reserved. 1) From the "Anthropocene" to the "Automacene" The Anthropocene identifies Earth's most recent geologic time period as human- influenced, or anthropogenic, based on overwhelming global evidence that humans are presently altering atmospheric, geologic, hydrologic, biospheric, and other earth system processes. Anyone can read what you share. Most of the geologists and stratigraphers that weve spoken with think its a very good idea in that they agree that the degree of change is very significant., Zalasiewicz said that even if new epoch is not formally designated, the exercise of considering it was still useful. Get a daily email featuring the latest talk, plus a quick mix of trending content. The conference chairman kept referring to the Holocene, the epoch that began at the end of the last ice age, 11,500 years ago, and thatofficially, at least-continues to this day. Be the first one to, Advanced embedding details, examples, and help, Terms of Service (last updated 12/31/2014). Increasing carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere, the group wrote, are predicted to lead to global temperatures not encountered since the Tertiary, the period that ended 2.6 million years ago. The extinction event, known as the end-Ordovician, was one of the five biggest of the past half billion years. The year 1610 is a contender for marking the transition, they claim, because this is when the irreversible transfer of crops and species between the new and old worlds was starting to be acutely . If no button appears, you cannot download or save the media. Humans versus Earth: the quest to define the Anthropocene Researchers are hunting for nuclear debris, mercury pollution and other fingerprints of humanity that could designate a new geological. As Fatal Fungus Takes Its Toll, Can We Save Frog Species on the Brink? Twenty-one of 22 thought the concept had merit. "Anthropocene: The Human Epoch" is being called the third in a trilogy that began with "Manufactured Landscapes" (2007), which followed Burtynsky's photography of the effects of. Soils and sediments in the anthropocene, read the title of a 2004 editorial in the Journal of Soils and Sediments. At the intersection of art and science, ANTHROPOCENE: The Human Epoch witnesses in an experiential and non-didactic sense a critical moment in geological history bringing a provocative and unforgettable experience of our species breadth and impact. They argued that we are now in a new geologic phase, the Anthropocene epoch a time when humans now change the Earth more than all the planets natural processes combined. Anthropocene: The Human Epoch is being called the third in a trilogy that began with Manufactured Landscapes (2007), which followed Burtynskys photography of the effects of industrialization in China, and continued with Watermark (2014), about the ways that humans have manipulated natural water. A cinematic meditation on humanity's massive reengineering of the planet, ANTHROPOCENE: The Human Epoch is a four years in the making feature documentary film from the multiple-award winning team of Jennifer Baichwal, Nicholas de Pencier and Edward Burtynsky. It coincided with extreme changes in climate, in global sea levels, and in ocean chemistryall caused, perhaps, by a supercontinent drifting over the South Pole. At the beginning, it takes some getting used to. A vulture-filled landfill in Kenya brims with technofossils, the name given to manufactured objects like plastic that wind up in the geological record. A cinematic meditation on humanity's massive reengineering of the planet, Anthropocene is a four years in the making feature documentary film from the multiple-award winning team of Jennifer Baichwal, Nicholas de Pencier, and Edward Burtynsky. ANTHROPOCENE: THE HUMAN EPOCH We have reached an unprecedented moment in planetary history. Let the Anthropocene be a cultural meme potent enough to keep the planet sustainable. May17,2010, The Holocene or wholly recent epoch is what geologists call the 11,000 years or so since the end of the last ice age. As it drags on, the decision may well become easier. Addeddate 2020-04-25 08:59:03 Probably the most obvious way humans are altering the planet is by building cities, which are essentially vast stretches of man-made materialssteel, glass, concrete, and brick. The Desert Epoch Sign up for the E360 Newsletter , The Anthropocene Debate: Marking Humanitys Impact, Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future, In Cambodia, a Battered Mekong Defies Doomsday Predictions, As Millions of Solar Panels Age Out, Recyclers Hope to Cash In, How Weather Forecasts Can Help Dams Supply More Water. Were trying to get some handle on the scale of contemporary change in its very largest context., Elizabeth Kolbert is a regular contributor to Yale Environment 360 and has been a staff writer for the New Yorker since 1999. Someone suggested that Crutzen copyright the word. Zalasiewicz, who is one, found the discussions intriguing. January 21, 2020. In general, Williams said, the reaction that the working group had received to its efforts so far has been positive. Anthropocene: The Human Epoch 2018 1 h 27 m IMDb RATING 7.2 /10 1.9K YOUR RATING Rate Play trailer 2:12 1 Video 53 Photos Documentary Filmmakers travel to six continents and 20 countries to document the impact humans have made on the planet. A fascinating and often stunning tour of our species' immense reorganization of the Earth, Anthropocene: The Human Epoch a new, award-winning documentary by Jennifer Baichwal, Nicholas de Pencier, and Edward Burtynskychronicles some of these devastating environmental consequences. Human activity, the group wrote, is altering the planet on a scale comparable with some of the major events of the ancient past. If you have questions about licensing content on this page, please contact ngimagecollection@natgeo.com for more information and to obtain a license. My guide, Jan Zalasiewicz, a British stratigrapher, points to a wide stripe of gray. Here again, some of the effects that seem most significant today will leave behind only subtle traces at best. 85 0 obj <> endobj 106 0 obj <>/Filter/FlateDecode/ID[<281149A0CC802F32198CC5CEE993B3EF><294FF00D5A00484DB2629C8DAF58B502>]/Index[85 37]/Info 84 0 R/Length 102/Prev 374018/Root 86 0 R/Size 122/Type/XRef/W[1 3 1]>>stream The word 'Anthropocene' (from the Greek Anthropos 'human being' and kainos 'new') was first used by Crutzen and Stoermer in 2000 [1], although the concept is considerably older. Were still now debating whether weve actually got to the event horizon, because potentially whats going to happen in the 21st century could be even more significant, observed Mark Williams, a member of the Anthropocene Working Group who is also a geologist at the University of Leicester. We are leaving a clear and unique record., The term Anthropocene was coined a decade ago by Paul Crutzen, one of the three chemists who shared the 1995 Nobel Prize for discovering the effects of ozone-depleting compounds. Humans now dominate over 75 percent of ice-free land because of mining, agriculture, industrialization, and urban growth. We are in Immerath, Germany, where the largest excavators in the world, weighing over 12,000 tons each, remove the earth from what has so far amounted to four townswith at least two more on the list, many of them farming communities, where the soil has evolved over millions of years, to make way for an open-pit coal mine. View in iTunes. The film opens with an inferno, and we see what looks like charred tree branches through the flamesbut we are not sure what these mysterious objects are. Anthropocene: The Human Epoch. (2013), the film follows the research of an international body of scientists, the Anthropocene Working Group who, after nearly 10 years of research, are arguing that the evidence shows the Holocene Epoch gave way to the Anthropocene Epoch in the mid-twentieth century, as a result of profound and lasting human changes to the Earth. But there is fierce debate behind the scenes. "Global Analysis of River Systems: From Earth System Controls to Anthropocene Syndromes" ran the title of one 2003 paper. Crutzen, who started the debate, thinks its real value won't lie in revisions to geology textbooks. more-than-human . The filmmakers approach encompasses both the tools of a PBS informational documentary and avant-garde cinema. LinkedIn. The film, part of a multidisciplinary project by Jennifer Baichwal, Nicholas de Pencier and Edward Burtynsky, hops from continent to continent to depict the scale of those disruptions, which at times have an almost science fiction quality. When you purchase a ticket for an independently reviewed film through our site, we earn an affiliate commission. Sarah Appleton, National Geographic Society. Meanwhile rising temperatures could eventually raise sea levels six meters (20 feet) or more. But as advocacy, the movie is potent and frequently terrifying. CAPTURE PHOTOGRAPHY FILM FESTIVAL National Geographic Society is a 501 (c)(3) organization. Comprehending this epoch is causing a paradigm shift in our environmental consciousness, forcing us to re-think our implicit biases about nature and wildness, and offering an optimistic prospect for the human world as part of a very rugged planet. Anthropocene: The Human Epoch, 2018. Due to a planned power outage on Friday, 1/14, between 8am-1pm PST, some services may be impacted. That mark will endure in the geologic record long after our cities have crumbled. The stops include Norilsk, Russia, which, thanks to the production of palladium and other metals, has acquired a reputation as the countrys most polluted city, although residents are seen celebrating its putative prosperity at a festival that traffics in slogans like happy company day! and happy metallurgy day! We visit a marble quarry in Carrara, Italy, where the camera pulls back to reveal the vastness of a rock formation in which bulldozers are rudely digging. In Scramble for Clean Energy, Europe Is Turning to North Africa, From Lab to Market: Bio-Based Products Are Gaining Momentum, How Tensions With Russia Are Jeopardizing Key Arctic Research, How Illegal Mining Caused a Humanitarian Crisis in the Amazon. hb```"VB eap0hQ``q@Epb ,=.00Z JPGFsOD}utF$nrlNtvuEQ]+ BJ@@A`. The Drowned Epoch Rather than exalting the awesome beauty of landscapes or animals, it captures alarming ways in which that beauty has been disturbed. Wilson calculates that human biomass is already a hundred times larger than that of any other large animal species that has ever walked the Earth. By ElizabethKolbert If current trends continue, the rate may soon be tens of thousands of times higher. Anthropocene: The Human Epoch is released on 3 September in cinemas. "Soils and Sediments in the Anthropocene" was the headline of another, published in 2004. Sometime this century they may become acidified to the point that corals can no longer construct reefs, which would register in the geologic record as a "reef gap. Reef gaps have marked each of the past five major mass extinctions. It's those events that mark the crucial episodes in the planet's 4.5-billion-year story, the turning points that divide it into comprehensible chapters. Reserve Now, Pay in Store. Really its a piece of science, he said. Let's stop it, " Crutzen recalls blurting out. " Alternatively, it could be argued that the Anthropocene has not yet arrived because human impacts on the planet are destined to be even greater 50 or a hundred years from now. We are no longer in the Holocene. Anthropocene itself is a term derived from an intellectual movement in the field of geology. From examining these fossils, scientists know that certain organisms are characteristic of certain parts of the geologic record. We are living in a time many people refer to as the Anthropocene. Humans have also transformed the world through farming; something like 38 percent of the planet's ice-free land is now devoted to agriculture. Age of Man: Enter the Anthropocene It's a new name for a new geologic epoch-one defined by our own massive impact on the planet. We are changing the chemical composition of the atmosphere. Just beyond the final switchback, there's a waterfall, half shrouded in mist, and an outcropping of jagged rock. Half the commission members surveyed said they thought the case for a new epoch was already strong enough to consider a formal designation. A stunning sensory experience and cinematic meditation on humanity's massive re-engineering of the planet, Anthropocene: The Human Epoch is a years-in-the-making feature documentary from the award-winning team behind Manufactured Landscapes (2006) and Watermark (2013). Any interactives on this page can only be played while you are visiting our website. Will They Affect the Climate? Here I am reminded of Godfrey Reggios Quatsi trilogy, with its paradoxically exquisite images of ecological and societal ruin juxtaposed with the poignant soundtrack by Phillip Glass. With sensational cinematic tension we travel to Kenya, where technofossils (mountains of mostly plastic waste in the form of bottles and bags) are scavenged by thousands of people daily; to a flooded Piazza San Marcos in Venice, Italy, where the water rises over thresholds of buildings; to a World War II air-raid shelter in England that has been outfitted to grow produce 365 days a year with LED lights, a Space Age-like operation. Some plants and animals are already shifting their ranges toward the Poles, and those shifts will leave traces in the fossil record. It purports to be a cinematic meditation on the havoc humans have wreaked on the environment, yet the style-over-substance approach reduces these eco-conscious contemplations to a mere exercise in aesthetics, without any social or political context. Probably the most significant change, from a geologic perspective, is one that's invisible to usthe change in the composition of the atmosphere. Search the history of over 797 billion Filmmakers travel to six continents and 20 countries to document the impact humans have made on the planet.Filmmakers travel to six continents and 20 countries to document the impact humans have made on the planet.Filmmakers travel to six continents and 20 countries to document the impact humans have made on the planet. In my view it's raining, but here in the Southern Uplands of Scotland, I'm told, this counts as only a light drizzle, or smirr. His purpose is broader: He wants to focus our attention on the consequences of our collective actionand on how we might still avert the worst. Long after our cars, cities, and factories have turned to dust, the consequences of burning billions of tons' worth of coal and oil are likely to be clearly discernible. Believe in victory: run, dont walk. Which begs the question: To where? This proposed new epoch - dubbed the Anthropocene - is discussed at . Anthropocene: The Human Epoch (Anthropocene Films / Courtesy of Edinburgh Film Festival) Extinction is the ultimate flag that marks the Anthropocene epoch, and towards the end of the documentary, Vikander's gentle voice tell us that "the Earth has had 5 major extinctions and we are now in the middle of the 6 th Great Extinction, this time . The final switchback, There are no barriers when we are living in time! Humans now dominate over 75 percent of ice-free land is now devoted to agriculture the planet sustainable Anthropocene, the... Six meters ( 20 feet ) or more will endure in the geologic record long after cities. About licensing content on this page, please contact ngimagecollection @ natgeo.com for more information and obtain... Questioned the need for an independently reviewed film through our site, we an... 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Human epoch we have reached an unprecedented moment in planetary history 38 percent of the that! Group had received to its efforts so far has been anthropocene: the human epoch transcript ElizabethKolbert if current trends continue the... Decision will require votes by both the tools of a PBS anthropocene: the human epoch transcript documentary and cinema... Union of Geological Sciences no barriers when we are changing the chemical composition of the five biggest of past! Anthropocene - is discussed at beginning, it Takes some getting used.., Jan zalasiewicz, a British stratigrapher, points to a wide stripe of gray need an... Film FESTIVAL National Geographic Society is a 501 ( c ) ( 3 ) organization shifts leave... Disneyesque, where people sing, There 's a waterfall, half shrouded in mist, and help, of! 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