If the term “Anthropocene mapping” doesn’t get your spidery geek sense tingling, I’m fairly certain you might want to check if you’re reading the right blog.  This week’s edition of “geek-out Sunday” is dedicated to a project called ”A Cartography of the Anthropocene” by the international organization Globaïa.  They launched this project in recognition of the world population crossing 7 billion in late October.

Anthropologist Felix Pharand-Deschenes gathered data from a variety of data sources to create the maps that capture the different types of linkages the people have with one another.

Pharand-Deschenes describes this period (i.e., the Anthropocene) as “[a] period marked by a regime change in the activity of industrial societies which began at the turn of the nineteenth century and which has caused global disruptions in the Earth system on a scale unprecedented in human history: climate change, biodiversity loss, pollution of the sea, land and air, resource depredation, land cover denudation, radical transformation of the ecumene, among others. These changes command a major realignment of our consciousness and worldviews, and call for different ways to inhabit the Earth.”

While the exact period definition is up for debate, most anthropologists define the Anthropocene as the period of time starting with the Industrial Revolution (and onward) during which humanity has had significant impact on the environment.

Related articles:

• Geek-out Sunday part X: Imperial March (marshallstanton.com)
• Geek-out Sunday part IX: Mars 500 (marshallstanton.com)
• Geek-out Sunday part VIII: Minecraft (marshallstanton.com)
• Geek-out Sunday part VII: quantum levitation (marshallstanton.com)
• Geek-out Sunday part VI: Apollo 11 (marshallstanton.com)