A new geological age brought about by human reconfiguring of the planet. We have discussed Ruddiman's research on greenhouse-gas consequences of early agriculture. He has now a long review of the subject in Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences. Four access modes: pay the publisher $20, visit your local library, email the author, PM me. Perhaps the most interesting is his idea (pretty well supported) that early agriculture used more land per capita than present. One does not convert forests to ag (especially rice) w/o releasing greenhouse gases. Put together, this appears to indicate that our ancestors were bigger gassers per capita than we are now. Or at least competitive, which is not an insignificant feat given their lack of fossil-fuel combustion.
