A New Epoch

If I was to vote on this new epoch and decide when it began, I would vote yes and believe it occurred in the 1800’s when the Industrial era began, (Steffen 616). This date makes sense because this is when a recorded rise in global C02 levels began its uninterrupted rise to its current levels. Other scientists believe the date should be pushed back to 8,000 years ago at the onset of agriculture and deforestation, (Kolbert 4). This date also makes sense because this can be seen as the beginning of the destructive reign of humans. Unregulated growth and the mindset that nature is here for us to manipulate and potentially destroy at our leisure brought the human race to where we are today, battling climate change that we ourselves caused. Malm states that all of this began with the discovery that humans can use and manipulate fire which ignited the “business as usual” state of mind, (Malm 1).

Dr. Kahan’s argument about people being able to understand climate science but choosing to ignore it based on social circles makes a lot of sense. He goes on to discuss how people draw different inferences from the same evidence based simply on their cultural surroundings, (Kahan 1). This is harmful to our ability as a society to combat climate changes as people will always be divided simply because of one another. It is difficult to spark conversations about climate change as is because it is a constantly debated topic and many people are simply tired of hearing about it. I would try and begin a conversation about climate change by telling someone how views on the subject are affected by a person’s surroundings and hopefully have a conversation where we can both share our thoughts and listen to one another without judgment or preconceived ideas.