Podcast: Anthropocene and Heard

What’s in a name? “Holocene” defines the geologic epoch we’re in. Or were in? Goodbye to “Holocene” and hello “Anthropocene!” Yes, scientists may actually re-name our geologic era as the “Age of Man” due to the profound impact we’ve had on the planet.

We’ll examine why we’ve earned this new moniker and who votes on such a thing. Plus, discover the strongest evidence for human-caused climate change.

Jonathon Porritt: Over-population: the global crisis that dare not speak its name - Commentators, Opinion - The Independent

The simple truth is that continuing population growth is a multiplier of every one of today's converging sustainability pressures, including climate change. We roughly know how many billions of tonnes of CO2 and other greenhouse gases we can afford to put into the atmosphere and still manage to avoid runaway climate change.

C3: IPCC Climate Physicist Verifies Climate Model Predictions Are Worthless For Periods Longer Than A Decade

In a state-of-the-art analysis, peer reviewed research by an IPCC climate expert has now confirmed that climate models are essentially worthless for predictions that stretch out a decade, which makes the models even worse than worthless for century-scale predictions.

- Bishop Hill blog - My letter in the BMJ

The timing of your call for action on climate change (Editorial, 19 October 2011) could hardly have been worse. Rather than dwelling on the theoretical dangers of climate change, you would perhaps have done better to note the BBC's report the same day that 2700 people die each year in the UK because of conditions linked to fuel poverty. For you to call for "governments to enact legislative and regulatory change to stop the building of new unabated coal-fired power stations" - actions that would undoubtedly increase the death toll still further -- therefore seems needlessly insensitive.