
The anthropocene era of man's dominance began in 1610, claim scientists - rosser
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/the-anthropocene-era-of-mans-dominance-began-in-1610-claim-scientists-10101690.html
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benbreen
Pinning the shift to an exact date like 1610 is silly, but I do agree with the
basic premise of their argument. In fact, it's essentially why I chose to
specialize in the history of the seventeenth century. Just from looking at the
famous "hockey stick" graph of world population you can see that this was the
period immediately preceding the shift into exponential growth - but what's
fascinating is that populations actually declined in many areas in the
seventeenth century, as did standards of living. Speaking of which, Eric
Hobsbawm's concept of a "General Crisis of the Seventeenth Century" seems
relevant here:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_General_Crisis](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_General_Crisis)

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sdml
"a dip in global carbon dioxide levels caused by the abandonment of native
farms across the Americas following the deaths of millions of indigenous
people in the aftermath of European colonisation."

Wouldn't this suggest that the advent of native farming had previously caused
a rise in global carbon dioxide levels, and consequently that the human epoch
began much earlier?

