August 1, 2023 | Blog
Sharing Laudato Si’- the Anthropocene vs. Ecozoic Age
A scientific panel has picked Crawford Lake, Ontario, to represent the Anthropocene epoch, a proposed, and hotly contested, new chapter in geologic time.
There is a view among many scientists that we have entered a new geologic age, the “Anthropocene”, reflecting the irreversible changes that humans have inflicted upon the earth. Click here to view the New York Times article.
What is the Anthropocene Epoch? Here are a couple of short videos to explain (sorry about the ads!)
There is another position put forward by the famous Passionist Eco-Theologian Thomas Berry, CP. He tells us that we are now in the “Ecozoic Era”.
The term “Ecozoic Era” was coined by Thomas Berry in conversation with Brian Swimme for their book The Universe Story in order to describe the geologic era that Earth is entering – when humans live in a mutually enhancing relationship with Earth and the Earth community. Earth is entering a new geologic era because the previous one, the Cenozoic era (spanning the last ~65 million years), has been terminated by the western-style industrialized human community in the late 19th, 20th, and early 21st century.
While not intending to change the course of evolution or change the chemistry or large scale cycles of the planet, we have indeed done so. (source: ecozoictimes.com)
Thomas Berry himself proposes “the Great Work to which Christianity is called in these times.” He writes, “We need a greater sense of humans, not as transcending the Earth community, but as members of the Earth community.” Similarly, Pope Francis writes in Laudato Si’ that “…human beings, endowed with intelligence, must respect the laws of nature and the delicate equilibria existing between the creatures of this world…” (LS 68)
Here is “Thomas Berry and the Earth Community” (7 min.)