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Changing climate brings start of 'Anthropocene' eraClimate changes are likely to mean rapid shifts in ecosystems and a dynamic environment that humans are unable to predict. The effects already are cropping up in the North American Southwest, according to an article in the October 2008 issue of Rangelands, published by the Society for Range Management. The 2002-2003 drought that destroyed much of the pine habitat--through extensive fires and bark beetle damage--can be attributed to global warming but reflects a larger, long-term ecosystem crisis. "We don't know where many of the systems on which we depend are headed," writes William deBuys in his article, "Welcome to the Anthropocene: Notes on the Vegetation of the Southwest, Past and Future." DeBuys says climate change is smashing several ecological concepts, including the belief in "nature's plan" and a "range of natural variability." "Chance plays a significant role in determining what species, whether native or introduced, establish themselves after disturbance," deBuys writes. "The results that ramify onward from the fires and diebacks of the future will challenge and perhaps defy our skills of prediction." This means water managers and others dealing with the land will have one constant--change--and will witness altering landscapes and ecosystems. "Such a prospect goes against our craving for order and our hunger for purpose," deBuys says. But as the cumulative effect of humans on the planet and its processes becomes a reality, so do the changes it brings. That's why deBuys says it's time to bid farewell to the Holocene, the "birthplace of civilization," and welcome the new "era of the Anthropocene" in which humans and their actions are a major determinant of future environmental conditions. This is an important realization, since our existence is dependent on the ecological conditions we help to create. "For better or worse, our time--a new time--has come," he says. To read the entire study, http://www.allenpress.com/pdf/rala-30-05-31-35.pdf. 11/17/08 Date: 11/11/08
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