From Adrin Neatrour, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
Regarding the debate over the start of the Anthropocene Epoch, the era of human influence on planetary systems, perhaps it wasn’t to do with geology at all. Before we created technologies that led to the Anthropocene, a change in attitude had to happen. I would pinpoint this as occurring in the 16th century, when white Europeans came to believe that they were superior, a conviction that underlaid the industrial-scale slave trade. They presumed they owned Earth. As its owners, they felt they had the right to treat the planet and its people in whatever way they wanted (9 September, p 21).
