Welcome to the Anthropocene

In its current issue, The Economist has published an interesting piece on "The Anthropocene - A man made world". In terms of public understanding of science it gives an interesting insight into how stratigraphy works, how palaeontology and geochemistry are used to define stratigraphical ages. It also looks at earth system science and on the interplay of human activity, climate and ocean chemistry.
Even though I do not agree with some of the suggestions on terraforming, it is the first time that I had the concept of "carbonate compensation depth" explained to me in a mainstream news magazine. I also found the example of the preservation of the ruins of a city on a fast sinking river delta highly original.