By definition, the Anthropocene is a proposed epoch that began when human activities started to have a significant global impact on Earth's ecosystems. The idea of an anthropogenic era is a highly debated topic amongst many researchers such as: Paul Wapner and Christopher J. Preston, who have attempted to provide viable solutions to ease the Anthropocene. They also argue that “we have so tamed, colonized, and contaminated the natural world that safeguarding it from humans is no longer an option” (Wapner, 111). Wapner depicts how humanity's imprint is now everywhere, and all efforts to "preserve" nature are highly improbable in the near future. Although a bold and convincing statement, it relies on a “slippery slope” type assumption that the …show more content…
In 2010, Climatologists Anny Cazenave and William Llovel stated that “recent acceleration in glacier melting and ice mass loss from the ice sheets” (Cazenave, 145) can be linked directly to an increase in global temperature. Their paper deducts that since water expands when it is warner, the ocean should also expand when it is warmer, in turn causing an overall increase in sea levels around the world. Section “2.2. Altimetry Era” states that “due to global deformation of ocean basins … we thus get a rate of global mean sea level rise of 3.4 ± 0.4 mm [per pear]” (Cazenave, 145). Cazenave later explains that the data was gathered through Topex/Poseidon, a satellite launched in August of 1992 by a joint satellite agency between the French and the Unites States of America. On board, it was equipped with only two onboard altimeters that sharing the same antenna. Nevertheless, during that period, it “ha[d] become the main tool for precisely measuring sea level changes globally” (Cazenave, 148), as it allowed for measurements of up to a precision of “>5 cm, [and after further data processing] to ∼1-2 cm” (Cazenave,