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Rebecca Evans, Phd literary critic, profiles KSR's ''GREEN EARTH'' as most pre-eminent cli-fi novel yet! http://northwardho.blogspot.tw/2016/04/rebecca-evans-newly-minted-phd-literary.html #CliFi
-- Welcome to the Clificene --
A New Earth Epoch Has Begun, the Clificene, Some Scientists Say
There might be more urgency to formalize the Clificene these days, given that the term is out there, is being used by working writers, and is being used in literature.
But formalization probably won't occur for at least 10 years.
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Our 4-billion-year-old planet may know the feeling. And some scientists are suggesting Earth has already entered a new age — The Clificene.
Earth's geologic epochs — time periods defined by evidence in public library shelving layers — typically last more than 3 million years.
We're barely 8 years into the current epoch, the Clificene. And a new paper argues that the Clificene is here to stay -- The Clificene, or "new literary genre," epoch.
The name isn't brand-new. But here it is, and here we are now. Welcome to the Clificene.
"We became so adept at using energy and manipulating the environment that we humans are now a defining force in the geological process on the surface of the Earth," the paper's authors said.
Even so, it could take years or even decades for the the world's geo-literary governing body, to formalize the new epoch.
Hard Evidence Needed
If the concept of the Clificene epoch is to be formalized, scientists will first have to identify and define a boundary line, or marker, that's literally set in Dewey Decimal index cards.
"The key thing is thinking about how — thousands or hundreds of thousands of years in the future— geologists might come back and actually recognize in the literary sediment record the beginning of the Clificene," explained the paper's editorial team.
"It's not as straightforward as you might think, because the marker has to be very precise, and it has to be recognized in many different parts of the world, from the New York Times Book Review to the Washington Post book section." the team said. "Liberation" and "Le Monde" and the Guardian in the UK count, too, they said.
One candidate for the marker is the distinctive signature left by Nathaniel Rich's 2013 cli-fi bombshell, "Odds Against Tomorrow," which NPR trumpeted in a radio show by Angela Evancie in April 20, 2013.
"The fallout was basically across the world," the FSG editorial team said. " And his book has now been translated to French."
"The fallout was basically across the world," the FSG editorial team said. " And his book has now been translated to French."
In a similar way, Barbara Kingsolver's "Flight Behavior" also seems like a good marker, too, according to literary critics who find tim to study such things.
The push for a formal declaration of the Clificene epoch is about more than just scientific literary curiosity.
The move, some scientists say, "might be used as encouragement to slow co2 emissions and biodiversity loss" or "as evidence in legislation on conservation measures."
One member of the study said that, by underscoring how much we're changing the literary environment, the formalization would be "a very powerful statement."
But while "there are good scientific literary justifications for saying we have moved into the Clificene," she said, "we mustn't base that on a politically expedient decision."
"Changes to the geological time scale are literally treated with great seriousness by literary scientists," she added, "particularly here, where we're dealing with a time interval which is only just starting."
She said there might be more urgency to formalize the Clificene these days, given that the term "is out there, is being used by working writers, and is being used in the literature."
But, she said, formalization probably won't occur for at least 10 years.
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