ABSTRACT
The term ‘Anthropocene’ carries a good deal of baggage. Really, it has a whole cart full of luggage, packed with a host of disagreements and debates about the term. These debates range from: geological disputes over the accuracy of the moniker compared to much-longer geological periods; other scientific debates over exactly when the Anthropocene period started; and sociological, political, and philosophical debates over the accuracy of the seemingly equal blame for the contemporary crises it places on all of humanity. People have long observed that humanity impacts the planet in significant, measurable ways. Since the Agricultural Revolution began about 10,000 years ago, humans have been making marked changes which affect the planet’s ecosystems and the more-than-only humans living within them. The ecological stakes have been irreversible and mind-boggling as well.
