Introduction

Matt Lynch: In this episode, I'm speaking with Dr. Timothy Bealbott about the concept of the Anthropocene. Most geologists would say that we're currently in the Holocene era and have been for the past 12,000 years since the end of the last major ice age. But increasingly in the past, like 5 to 10 years, people have talked about the current era as not the Holocene, but the Anthropocene - when humans have had the most significant impact on the state of the planet. And so that's what's denoted by Anthropocene.