Crawford Lake Conservation Area

Crawford Lake: What the past can teach us about urban living today

Retrieved on: 
수요일, 7월 19, 2023
Plutonium, Royal Ontario Museum, Global, Human, Noise, Anthropocene, Tree, Survival, Allan, History, Carbon, Creativity, Biodiversity, Plant, Climate change, Acquisition, Golden spike, Collection, Time, GSSP, Century, Bowl game, Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point, City, Ecosystem, Environment, Air pollution, Dust, Dust Bowl, Lake, Animal husbandry, Aquaculture, Civil engineering, Dredging, Agriculture, Road, Hunting, Seaweed, Crawford Lake Conservation Area, Lake Ontario

Further, as a limnologist studying inland waters I have long understood that lakes are sentinels of climate change.

Key Points: 
  • Further, as a limnologist studying inland waters I have long understood that lakes are sentinels of climate change.
  • Small changes in environmental conditions can lead to larger changes in a lake’s physical, chemical and biological processes, impacting the ecosystem services they provide.
  • And what, if anything, can it teach us about how we interact with our environments?

A local history of environmental change

    • This varving allows for particularly accurate historical dating of environmental events.
    • But even beyond its status as a Golden Spike candidate, Crawford Lake’s sediments tell a powerful story of human history that is both local and global.
    • Thus, in one continuous sediment core, we witness Indigenous and colonial local histories, as well as the global signature of an inflection point in Earth systems due to human activities.

The impacts of intentions

    • Ultimately, Crawford Lake’s sediments teach us that humans have always — and will always — change our environments in some way.
    • But it is our cultures, discourses and attitudes towards our environment that ultimately determine what this change will look like.
    • It’s easy to focus on the negative impacts that humans can have on the environment.

Reversing urban impacts

    • As we are — for the first time in human history — a predominantly urban species, it is now more important than ever to design our cities to help ensure our urban areas create net positive outcomes to local biodiversity and climate impacts.
    • The possibilities are as diverse as the landscapes where the cities are situated, compounded with the collective creativity of their inhabitants.
    • Toronto, the largest urban area close to Crawford Lake, might adopt measures being undertaken by other cities around the world, for instance creating wildlife habitat corridors connecting its existing ravine systems, and expanding the efforts of locals using their private yards as refuges for native plants.
    • We can tap into the best that our species is capable of, improving our quality of living along the way.

A Canadian lake holds the key to the beginning of the Anthropocene, a new geological epoch

Retrieved on: 
화요일, 7월 11, 2023
History of science, Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, Human, Anthropocene Working Group, Anthropocene, Native, Acceleration, Geology, International Commission on Stratigraphy, Great Acceleration, Pollen, Research, Radionuclide, Movement, Biodiversity, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Population, World War II, Nature, GSSP, Atmosphere, Haus, Ecosystem, The Anthropocene Reviewed, Max Planck Society, Plutonium, Rare-earth element, Limestone, Uranium mining, Animal husbandry, Holocene, Crawford Lake Conservation Area

Leer en español Are we really living in the Anthropocene, the geological time marked by the global impact of human activity?

Key Points: 
  • Leer en español Are we really living in the Anthropocene, the geological time marked by the global impact of human activity?
  • What makes this site so special that it holds the dividing line between different geological epochs?

The footprint of the Great Acceleration

    • These studies have concluded that the Anthropocene is significant on a geologic scale because of the rapidity and magnitude of recent human impacts on processes operating on the Earth’s surface.
    • Many of these impacts have generated irreversible changes that exceed the small range of natural variability of the Holocene, which began 11,700 years ago.

Finding the ‘golden spike’

    • Over the years, the Anthropocene Working Group has mostly agreed that the Anthropocene is geologically real and should be formalized as an independent unit within the international scale of geologic time.
    • Its onset would be in the mid-20th century, in the 1950s, according to the global signals recorded in sediments since then.

Selection criteria

    • Twelve detailed proposals were initially submitted for different geological sections that could host this GSSP, located on five continents and situated in eight different geological environments.
    • All of them were published in 2023 in the scientific journal Anthropocene Review.
    • These papers were the main source of information for the voting members of the Anthropocene Working Group during the selection process.

And the winner is …

    • According to the results, the most relevant geological sections were located in Beppu Bay, Japan; Sihailongwan Lake, China; and Crawford Lake.
    • After a detailed analysis of the nature of their plutonium signal and a new vote, the Chinese and Canadian lake sites were finalists.
    • In the end, Crawford Lake received 61% of the votes and was chosen as the site of the GSSP for the Anthropocene epoch.

Farewell to the Holocene

    • Formalizing it precisely will help determine its meaning and use in all sciences and other academic disciplines.
    • The end of a relatively stable epoch in Earth’s history, the Holocene, will thus be recognized.

Canada’s Crawford Lake selected as top world site to define start of proposed Anthropocene epoch

Retrieved on: 
화요일, 7월 11, 2023
University College London, Population growth, Royal Ontario Museum, Human, Holocene, Student, Canadian Museum of Nature, Earth science, Anthropocene, Principal investigator, Culture, AWG, Acceleration, Geology, International Commission on Stratigraphy, Pollen, Research, Indigenous, International Union of Geological Sciences, History, Carleton University, Carbon, Universal indicator, Science, Pacific Ocean, Conservation Halton, GSSP, Anthropocene Working Group, Water, McCarthy, Environment, The Anthropocene Reviewed, Lake, Rare-earth element, Uranium mining, Limestone, Dam, Nature, Crawford Lake Conservation Area

Milton, Ont., July 11, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- An international group of researchers has selected Conservation Halton's Crawford Lake in Milton, Ont., as the site that could formally define the start of the Anthropocene, a proposed new epoch shaped by the significant global impacts of recent human activity.

Key Points: 
  • Milton, Ont., July 11, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- An international group of researchers has selected Conservation Halton's Crawford Lake in Milton, Ont., as the site that could formally define the start of the Anthropocene, a proposed new epoch shaped by the significant global impacts of recent human activity.
  • “Conservation Halton acquired Crawford Lake in the 1960s, and the site has been contributing to local and international research efforts ever since then,” said Hassaan Basit, President and CEO of Conservation Halton.
  • Now, the latest geological findings add a macro, planetary perspective to the stories told at Crawford Lake.
  • This plutonium signature coincides with the ‘Great Acceleration’ and is the primary marker proposed to identify the start of the Anthropocene epoch.