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Stanford University
‘Human activity on a massive scale’: a photo exhibition tackles the climate crisis

‘Human activity on a massive scale’: a photo exhibition tackles the climate crisis

An image of a salt mine in Chile

Edward Burtynsky, Lithium Mines #1, Salt Flats, Atacama Desert, Chile, 2017. Pigment inkjet print on Kodak Professional Photo Paper, 48 x 64 inches (121.9 x 162.6 cm). Courtesy of Weinstein Hammons Gallery, Minneapolis / Nicholas Metivier Gallery, Toronto. © Edward Burtynsky

The word anthropocene has been proposed to denote an ongoing epoch in which human activity is a primary driving force of geological change. Although the word has caught on like wildfire in a colloquial sense, it was ultimately rejected as a descriptive scientific term, not so much because it was inaccurate but because of disagreements over when exactly it would have started – 1945, marking the unlocking of nuclear power; 1610, which may be the first time human activity affected the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere; 1964, when the so-called Great Acceleration may have begun – or some other date altogether?

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