Main Characteristics of Anthropocene and its Link to Technology Use

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Characteristics of the Anthropocene
Introduction
The earth, which is estimated to have existed for at least 4.5 billion years, has had several factors influence its ecological evolution. The period the earth has existed can be split into five distinct timelines: eons, eras, periods, epochs, and ages. An epoch is a geological term used to classify the earth's history based on physical variations that occur to the planet that is often accompanied by a significant change in the ecology. An epoch can last as long as a million years, and the most recent known ecological epoch is termed as Holocene, estimated to have lasted over 11,500 years. Holocene has seen the planet earth experience some instantaneous changes, including rapid population growth, new architectural designs that led to world cities, and a new civilization. The current epoch, the Anthropocene, has been attributed to human impacts on the earth, and there exist distinctive characteristics that define this period.
Main Characteristics of Anthropocene
The major driving force for the Anthropocene epoch that makes it distinct from its predecessor, the Holocene, is that the earthly changes in this era are mainly due to human intervention. Unlike the Holocene epoch, where its beginning is marked by the end of the ice age and the disappearance of the glaciers that had previously covered the earth, the Anthropocene timeline is commonly associated with elements that emerged as a result of human intervention, such as the fossil fuel economy, nuclear energy, plastics, and technology. Although there have been speculations about the timeline from the mid 20th century, the Working Group on the Anthropocene (WGA) are still deliberating on the golden spike to demarcate the timeline from the Holocene epoch distinctively. The different opinions from the scientists and scholars of earth history have no clear consensus on the distinctive features of the Holocene and Anthropocene.
Extinction has been happening over the past years, marking the end of some particular species over time. However, extinction in the Anthropocene timeline has been triggered mainly by human activities, unlike in the past, where extinction was driven mainly by natural calamities like volcanic eruptions or even asteroids. There is compelling evidence that human activities that are rampant in the Anthropocene epoch are accelerating the rates of extinction of some species. The widespread use of technology has also threatened some species that ordinarily would not have been endangered, allowing humans to perform extirpation that warrants species-level extinction. Climate change that is at its peak in the Anthropocene timeline has also been noted as the core characteristic, mainly attributed to the widespread use of fossil fuel and other human activities such as deforestation and settlement on water catchment areas.
Anthropocene can be simply defined as the period when humans have had an immense impact on the planet simply because the characteristics that best describe the epoch are all associated with human activities. The climate change associated with the burning of fossil fuels and other hu...