Global Warming
Out of context: Reply #574
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Humans suck even worse than we thought, study finds
If you’re a human — and if you’re not, how are you reading this? — you’ve probably come to terms with the fact that you’re part of the problem. Earth is headed toward a cliff and the overwhelming majority of very smart people who study our planet say it’s because we can’t stop messing things up. We fill the oceans with plastics, burn old dinosaurs to keep our houses warm and our cars moving, and change the landscape of entire continents, all while pretending our actions will be without consequences. Sigh.
While a lot of research has gone into revealing how dramatically we have messed the planet up with things like fossil fuel and pollution, new research suggests that our more recent habits are only a portion of the problem. Humans, it seems, have been severely stressing Earth out for up to 4,600 years, and perhaps even longer. The work, which was published this week in the journal Science, links dramatic changes in Earth’s vegetation with the same window of time in which human agriculture exploded.