Humanity's Fitting Place on the List of Mass Extinction Events
Let's be honest: apart from the Cyanobacteria that first introduced oxygen into the atmosphere, no other species has had such a significant influence on the Earth than mankind. So much so, in fact, that it is said we are now entering the next mass extinction event. This is a statement that shouldn't be taken lightly, considering that previous extinction events were caused by the likes of Chicxulub impact, the 170 km wide meteor that killed off the dinosaurs. Having us, as a species, put in the same list as such events has a very profound effect of putting things in perspective. In the 4.5 billion years of Earth’s existence, it has experienced a lot of change, from the creation of life, to severe ice ages and interglacials, to massive volcanic eruption and finally to us, a stage in the Earth's life known as the Anthroposcene Epoch. That’s right, a whole epoch has been named after us, a single species. When looked at from the perspective of a human life span, the changes don't seem too severe, making it hard to actually comprehend the fact that our influence on the planet does fit in this list rather well. We need to look at it on a scale of millions of years in order to fully appreciate what we have done; something which I am aware is very hard to comprehend.