Encyclopedia of the Anthropocene presents a currency-based, global synthesis cataloguing the impact of humanity's global ecological footprint. Covering a multitude of aspects related to Climate Change, Biodiversity, Contaminants, Geological, Energy and Ethics, leading scientists provide foundational essays that enable researchers to define and scrutinize information, ideas, relationships, meanings and ideas within the Anthropocene concept. Questions widely debated among scientists, humanists, conservationists, politicians and others are included, providing discussion on when the Anthropocene began, what to call it, whether it should be considered an official geological epoch, whether it can be contained in time, and how it will affect future generations.
Although the idea that humanity has driven the planet into a new geological epoch has been around since the dawn of the 20th century, the term 'Anthropocene' was only first used by ecologist Eugene Stoermer in the 1980s, and hence popularized in its current meaning by atmospheric chemist Paul Crutzen in 2000.
Biodiversity
Climate Change
Contaminants
Energy
Geological Epochs
Socioeconomics and Ethics
Dominick A. DellaSala, Ph.D., is President and Chief Scientist of the Geos Institute in Ashland, Oregon. He served two terms as President of the Society for Conservation Biology, North America Section, and is a Courtesy Professor at Oregon State University. He is an internationally renowned author of over 200 technical papers on forest and fire ecology, conservation biology, endangered species, and landscape ecology. He received conservation leadership awards from the World Wildlife Fund (2000, 2004), Wilburforce Foundation (2006), received Choice Publisher's "academic excellence" award for Temperate and Boreal Rainforests of the World: Ecology and Conservation, and is on the Fulbright Specialist roster for international placement by the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs and the Council for International Exchange of Scholars. Dr. DellaSala has appeared on nature documentaries (PBS), as an expert witness at numerous congressional hearings including acting as a "whistle blower" during congressional hearings on scientific integrity and the Endangered Species Act, and has given keynote addresses at numerous conferences and international meetings such the United Nations Earth Summit. He is motivated by his passion to leave a living planet for his daughter and all those that follow.
Michael I. Goldstein is a planner and biologist for the US Forest Service in Juneau, Alaska. Mike has worked on many applied management issues across terrestrial and aquatic systems, addressing pesticides, dispersed recreation, development, timber harvest, and other forms of resource extraction. Mike is on the editorial board of Elsevier's major reference work Earth Systems and Environmental Sciences as the ecology and conservation editor, serves as coeditor-in-chief of this Encyclopedia of the Anthropocene and coeditor of the Anthropocene's Climate Change volume, and subject editor for several scientific journals. In his spare time, Mike coaches skiing, enjoys fishing and camping in remote places, and teaching his three children.