Evidence has shown that there has been dramatic impacts of human activity on the environment in the last few centuries. These facts, though often ignored, are easy to be seen through historical and statistical facts. In the article The Anthropocene: Are Humans Now the Great Forces of Nature?, the authors state that, “Between 1800 and 2000 population grew more than six-fold, the global economy about 50-fold, and energy use about 40-fold (816). It also opened an era of intensified and ever-mounting human influence upon the Earth System. (pg. 616) I believe this evidence proves there is a distinct era for this modern period. I believe the designation of the modern era as the Anthropoce would be a valuable decision. I would vote yes in adding the Anthropocene epoch to the geologic time scale. I would argue that this era should start around the time of the early Industrial Revolution or mid to late 19th century. This would be around the time that coal became a major player for energy production.
When our views on climate change are affected by our social groups, we run the risk of creating dangerous societal divisions. These divisions can cause conflict that prevents us from crating solutions to the problems that are facing everyone. Instead of working together to solve problems, we choose to disagree with each other and fight amongst ourselves rather than fight the broader problems. I believe, similar to what Dr. Whitlock spoke about, that in order to prevent these conflicts from occurring and work together, we meaning those who want to change the way the climate is changing, need to reach others where they are at. This means that we need to show others that there are dramatic changes that are occurring to their environments and point to how human actions have affected those environments. We must use practical and respective education practices to show others how our environment is changing and not be offended when they disagree. Only through respectful discourse can opinions change about climate science.