ABSTRACT
As far back as ancient Greece and Rome, humankind has made a continual effort to situate itself within nature or nature within itself according to our dynamic and evolving understanding of ourselves and our environment. Humans have influenced their environment since ancient times. Renaissance scholars saw that deforestation, irrigation, and grazing altered the land and affected local habitats and ecosystems. However, human impact has never been as far-reaching as in the years since the Industrial Revolution, or the Anthropocene. This informal geologic term was coined by ecologist Eugene Stoermer and has been popularized by the Noble Prize winner chemist Paul Crutzen. The Anthropocene encompasses the age of human activities that have had significant global impact on ecosystems and climate.
