I believe that the decision to mark the Anthropocene epoch on the geological time scale should be accepted. As said in the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences paper, “Humankind will remain a major geological force for many millennia” and “to ensure the sustainability of Earth’s life support system against human-induced stresses is one of the greatest research…challenges ever to confront humanity” (Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Pg. 618). This means that in order to combat this issue, we first should understand just how dire the circumstances are and the best way to do so in my opinion would be to mark the epoch to the geological calendar. According to Kolbert, “the boundaries between epochs are defined by changes preserved in sedimentary rocks”, so by those standards I would say that the epoch should start somewhere in the beginning of the industrial era because from what I gather, that time would most likely be the time of the first changes in atmosphere and earth structure due to human actions start to appear and make a difference (Kolbert Pg. 2).
This type of inability to change because of social perceptions is my least favorite aspect of group mentality. It all stems from powerful people deciding that, since something doesn’t agree with their world view, it doesn’t exist and then influencing their followers that it doesn’t either because if they believe it does, that means they aren’t a follower anymore. As Kahan said “their reasoning powers have become disabled by a polluted science-communication environment” (Kahan paragraph 2). Dr. Whitlock and her group address this problem by reaching out to all manners of people and making it about the earth and its resources and what those resources provide to the people instead of about politics. The best way to encourage people of all kinds in my mind would be to spread word that its something that will affect all people very soon, even if you don’t believe. Find specifics in each area of people and reasons why climate change would affect their lives.