Anthropocene

TED Radio Hour

NPR

Social Sciences, Society & Culture, Science, Technology

4.4 • 21.3K Ratings

🗓️ 22 June 2018

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Some scientists say we're in a new geological age where humans are having an unprecedented impact on Earth. This hour, TED speakers ask what this means for the future of our planet, and our species. Guests include paleontologists Kenneth Lacovara and Peter Ward, environmental writer Emma Marris, and biodiversity archivist Cary Fowler. (Original broadcast date: September 30, 2016.)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, it's Guy here. So have you ever wondered how much of the world around us has been shaped by
0:06.0	humans? And then how much of it remains untouched? Well, the answer might surprise you because no
0:12.2	matter where you are, even in the most pristine places on Earth, they've been deeply influenced
0:17.9	by our presence. So much so that some scientists say we're living in a new geological epic,
0:24.1	and it's called Anthropocene. And today's show is all about how we're changing our planet
0:29.5	and what that might mean for the future. This episode originally aired in September of 2016.
0:36.5	This is the Ted Radio Hour.
0:42.5	Each week, groundbreaking Ted Talks. Ted. Ted. Technology. Entertainment. Design.
0:48.6	Design. Is that really what's 10 for us? I'm never known that. Delivered at Ted Conferences
0:53.0	around the world. The gift of the human imagination. We've had to believe in impossible things.
0:58.0	The true nature of reality beckons from just beyond those talks, those ideas adapted for radio
1:08.2	from NPR. I'm Guy Ross. Did you know that the birthplace of dinosaur paleontology is actually in
1:21.0	New Jersey? It is. The world's first really substantial dinosaur skeleton was found in
1:28.8	Haddonfield, New Jersey in 1858. And the world's first tyrannosaur was found about a mile from my
1:34.2	quarry 150 years ago this week. This is Ken Lekovara, he's a paleontologist and dean of the school of
1:42.5	Earth and Environment at Rowan University. Which runs a dinosaur quarry in New Jersey. Wonderful place.
1:49.9	Yeah, the New Jersey turnpike doesn't exactly scream birthplace of paleontology.
1:54.0	It does not. Yeah, because you just go by like factories and you don't think about dinosaurs when
1:58.2	you're there. I do. You do when you're driving down the New Jersey turnpike? Well, I do because I know
2:06.0	what geological formations I'm driving over. Okay, so just out of the curiosity, driving down the
2:11.2	New Jersey turnpike, if you were like a dinosaur and you went back and what would that look like?
2:17.3	Well, if if you were back in the Cretaceous period the last of the time of the dinosaurs and you
	...

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