Extreme Events In Human Evolution From The Pliocene To The Anthropocene

Author : Huw Groucutt
Publisher : Frontiers Media SA
ISBN 13 : 2832504043
Total Pages : 176 pages
Book Rating : 4.48/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Extreme Events in Human Evolution: From the Pliocene to the Anthropocene written by Huw Groucutt and published by Frontiers Media SA. This book was released on 2022-11-07 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Author : Andrew Y. Glikson
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 331922512X
Total Pages : 227 pages
Book Rating : 4.28/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Climate, Fire and Human Evolution written by Andrew Y. Glikson and published by Springer. This book was released on 2015-11-04 with total page 227 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book outlines principal milestones in the evolution of the atmosphere, oceans and biosphere during the last 4 million years in relation with the evolution from primates to the genus Homo – which uniquely mastered the ignition and transfer of fire. The advent of land plants since about 420 million years ago ensued in flammable carbon-rich biosphere interfaced with an oxygen-rich atmosphere. Born on a flammable Earth surface, under increasingly unstable climates descending from the warmer Pliocene into the deepest ice ages of the Pleistocene, human survival depended on both—biological adaptations and cultural evolution, mastering fire as a necessity. This allowed the genus to increase entropy in nature by orders of magnitude. Gathered around camp fires during long nights for hundreds of thousandth of years, captivated by the flickering life-like dance of the flames, humans developed imagination, insights, cravings, fears, premonitions of death and thereby aspiration for immortality, omniscience, omnipotence and the concept of god. Inherent in pantheism was the reverence of the Earth, its rocks and its living creatures, contrasted by the subsequent rise of monotheistic sky-god creeds which regard Earth as but a corridor to heaven. Once the climate stabilized in the early Holocene, since about ~7000 years-ago production of excess food by Neolithic civilization along the Great River Valleys has allowed human imagination and dreams to express themselves through the construction of monuments to immortality. Further to burning large part of the forests, the discovery of combustion and exhumation of carbon from the Earth’s hundreds of millions of years-old fossil biospheres set the stage for an anthropogenic oxidation event, affecting an abrupt shift in state of the atmosphere-ocean-cryosphere system. The consequent ongoing extinction equals the past five great mass extinctions of species—constituting a geological event horizon in the history of planet Earth.

Author : National Research Council
Publisher : National Academies Press
ISBN 13 : 0309152399
Total Pages : 129 pages
Book Rating : 4.96/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Understanding Climate's Influence on Human Evolution written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2010-03-17 with total page 129 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The hominin fossil record documents a history of critical evolutionary events that have ultimately shaped and defined what it means to be human, including the origins of bipedalism; the emergence of our genus Homo; the first use of stone tools; increases in brain size; and the emergence of Homo sapiens, tools, and culture. The Earth's geological record suggests that some evolutionary events were coincident with substantial changes in African and Eurasian climate, raising the possibility that critical junctures in human evolution and behavioral development may have been affected by the environmental characteristics of the areas where hominins evolved. Understanding Climate's Change on Human Evolution explores the opportunities of using scientific research to improve our understanding of how climate may have helped shape our species. Improved climate records for specific regions will be required before it is possible to evaluate how critical resources for hominins, especially water and vegetation, would have been distributed on the landscape during key intervals of hominin history. Existing records contain substantial temporal gaps. The book's initiatives are presented in two major research themes: first, determining the impacts of climate change and climate variability on human evolution and dispersal; and second, integrating climate modeling, environmental records, and biotic responses. Understanding Climate's Change on Human Evolution suggests a new scientific program for international climate and human evolution studies that involve an exploration initiative to locate new fossil sites and to broaden the geographic and temporal sampling of the fossil and archeological record; a comprehensive and integrative scientific drilling program in lakes, lake bed outcrops, and ocean basins surrounding the regions where hominins evolved and a major investment in climate modeling experiments for key time intervals and regions that are critical to understanding human evolution.

Author : William M. Bowen
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 3319950347
Total Pages : 309 pages
Book Rating : 4.41/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Evolution of Human Settlements written by William M. Bowen and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-08-03 with total page 309 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book analyzes the history and development of settlements—from the earliest periods in human history to the present day—from a Darwinian evolutionary perspective. At the foundation of the evolutionary model is the argument that the human capacity for complex communication and unique problem-solving ability have led to the formation and reality of the modern city and its scaled-up megacity status. While evolutionary theory forms the platform for the book’s argument, general systems theory provides the operational framework for the organization and interpretations of each chapter. Throughout the book, the authors tackle various issues, questions, and possibilities regarding the future development and evolution of human settlements.

Author : William H. Calvin
Publisher : William H. Calvin
ISBN 13 : 098291671X
Total Pages : 379 pages
Book Rating : 4.11/5 ( download)

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Download or read book A Brain for All Seasons written by William H. Calvin and published by William H. Calvin. This book was released on 2010-08-02 with total page 379 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Author : Andrew Y. Glikson
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9789400773332
Total Pages : 190 pages
Book Rating : 4.31/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Evolution of the Atmosphere, Fire and the Anthropocene Climate Event Horizon written by Andrew Y. Glikson and published by . This book was released on 2013-10-31 with total page 190 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Author : Jan Zalasiewicz
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 110847523X
Total Pages : 385 pages
Book Rating : 4.35/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Anthropocene as a Geological Time Unit written by Jan Zalasiewicz and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2019-03-07 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reviews the evidence underpinning the Anthropocene as a geological epoch written by the Anthropocene Working Group investigating it. The book discusses ongoing changes to the Earth system within the context of deep geological time, allowing a comparison between the global transition taking place today with major transitions in Earth history.

Author : Andrew Y. Glikson
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN 13 : 9400773323
Total Pages : 177 pages
Book Rating : 4.25/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Evolution of the Atmosphere, Fire and the Anthropocene Climate Event Horizon written by Andrew Y. Glikson and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-10-08 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Unique among all creatures, further to the increase in its cranial volume from Australopithecus to Homo sapiens, the use of tools and cultural and scientific creativity, the genus Homo is distinguished by the mastery of fire, which since about two million years ago has become its blueprint. Through the Holocene and culminating in the Anthropocene, the burning of much of the terrestrial vegetation, excavation and combustion of fossil carbon from up to 420 million years-old biospheres, are leading to a global oxidation event on a geological scale, a rise in entropy in nature and the sixth mass extinction of species.

Author : Andrew Yoram Glikson
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 3319572377
Total Pages : 154 pages
Book Rating : 4.76/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Plutocene: Blueprints for a Post-Anthropocene Greenhouse Earth written by Andrew Yoram Glikson and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-07-10 with total page 154 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents projections and blueprints of the future geologic period, climate and biosphere, based on our current understanding of the Earth’s history and recent developments in the atmosphere-ocean-cryosphere system. By the second decade of the 21st century it has become clear that, rather than channel its efforts into protecting its planetary biosphere and living species, Homo sapiens continues to sink its remaining resources into weapons, including nuclear missiles – thus increasing the risk of intentional or accidental spread of radioactive nuclides on land, oceans and atmosphere. With time, possibility becomes probability, and probability becomes certainty ‒ heralding a transition from the Anthropocene to a new geological period, named here as Plutocene after the element Plutonium. During the Plutocene the biosphere is dominated by elevated temperatures, analogous to the Pliocene (2.6 – 5.3 Ma ago) or the Miocene (5.3 - 23 Ma ago) when mean global temperatures were 2 to 4 degrees Celsius warmer and sea levels 20 to 40 meters higher than pre-industrial levels. High levels of radioactivity will persist for at least 20,000 years and acid oceans will severely limit biological activity to the hardiest species. Atmospheric CO2 higher than 500 ppm with residence time on the order of thousands of years will delay the subsequent glacial cycle. These factors restrict comparisons of the Plutocene with biosphere conditions during the Miocene and Pliocene periods, partly because the flora and fauna evolved more gradually during these periods, unlike the abrupt climate shift of state during the second half of the 20th century and first part of the 21st century. Following a long lull in biological activity dominated by radiation-resistant organisms, especially Arthropods, a resumption of glacial cycles and decline in radioactivity will lead to the re-emergence of descendants of burrowing mammals and other genera. Depending on the intensity of radioactive pollution, hunter-gatherer humans may survive in northern latitudes, relatively cold high-altitude mountain valleys and elevated volcanic islands. In some areas subsistence farming may be possible. A new cycle will commence.

Author : Roy Scranton
Publisher : City Lights Publishers
ISBN 13 : 087286670X
Total Pages : 144 pages
Book Rating : 4.06/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Learning to Die in the Anthropocene written by Roy Scranton and published by City Lights Publishers. This book was released on 2015-09-07 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In Learning to Die in the Anthropocene, Roy Scranton draws on his experiences in Iraq to confront the grim realities of climate change. The result is a fierce and provocative book."--Elizabeth Kolbert, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History "Roy Scranton's Learning to Die in the Anthropocene presents, without extraneous bullshit, what we must do to survive on Earth. It's a powerful, useful, and ultimately hopeful book that more than any other I've read has the ability to change people's minds and create change. For me, it crystallizes and expresses what I've been thinking about and trying to get a grasp on. The economical way it does so, with such clarity, sets the book apart from most others on the subject."--Jeff VanderMeer, author of the Southern Reach trilogy "Roy Scranton lucidly articulates the depth of the climate crisis with an honesty that is all too rare, then calls for a reimagined humanism that will help us meet our stormy future with as much decency as we can muster. While I don't share his conclusions about the potential for social movements to drive ambitious mitigation, this is a wise and important challenge from an elegant writer and original thinker. A critical intervention."--Naomi Klein, author of This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate "Concise, elegant, erudite, heartfelt & wise."--Amitav Ghosh, author of Flood of Fire "War veteran and journalist Roy Scranton combines memoir, philosophy, and science writing to craft one of the definitive documents of the modern era."--The Believer Best Books of 2015 Coming home from the war in Iraq, US Army private Roy Scranton thought he'd left the world of strife behind. Then he watched as new calamities struck America, heralding a threat far more dangerous than ISIS or Al Qaeda: Hurricane Katrina, Superstorm Sandy, megadrought--the shock and awe of global warming. Our world is changing. Rising seas, spiking temperatures, and extreme weather imperil global infrastructure, crops, and water supplies. Conflict, famine, plagues, and riots menace from every quarter. From war-stricken Baghdad to the melting Arctic, human-caused climate change poses a danger not only to political and economic stability, but to civilization itself . . . and to what it means to be human. Our greatest enemy, it turns out, is ourselves. The warmer, wetter, more chaotic world we now live in--the Anthropocene--demands a radical new vision of human life. In this bracing response to climate change, Roy Scranton combines memoir, reportage, philosophy, and Zen wisdom to explore what it means to be human in a rapidly evolving world, taking readers on a journey through street protests, the latest findings of earth scientists, a historic UN summit, millennia of geological history, and the persistent vitality of ancient literature. Expanding on his influential New York Times essay (the #1 most-emailed article the day it appeared, and selected for Best American Science and Nature Writing 2014), Scranton responds to the existential problem of global warming by arguing that in order to survive, we must come to terms with our mortality. Plato argued that to philosophize is to learn to die. If that’s true, says Scranton, then we have entered humanity’s most philosophical age--for this is precisely the problem of the Anthropocene. The trouble now is that we must learn to die not as individuals, but as a civilization. Roy Scranton has published in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Rolling Stone, Boston Review, and Theory and Event, and has been interviewed on NPR's Fresh Air, among other media.