Since the start of industrialization, the Earth has undergone many changes. Carbon dioxide in our atmosphere has spiked. New sediments of carbon-rich deposits (plastic) pollute our shores.Tunnels and mines have made “geological phenomena look like Swiss cheese.” If a geologist 10,000 years in the future looked back on this period of human existence, what would they think? Would the amount of human-made effects on the Earth call for a new geological age?

In this second episode,Simon Dalby, author of Anthropocene Geopolitics: Globalization, Security, Sustainability, digs into the debate around the our current geological age: the Anthropocene period. He explains the complications of using geology—a practice that looks to the past—to designate the present circumstances, and the urgency to define this period in the first place. Last, Simon discusses the importance of “planetary boundaries,” and why we need to obey them if we want to continue living on a habitable planet.

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