April 17

Humankind's growing ability to alter the natural order has been the most pronounced out of all distinctive features of the twentieth century. The Anthropocene or the Age of Man is what scientists began to refer to the current era as. The lasting impact of human activity on the planet is what this informal term has called attention to. In 2012, the world was left with over 7 billion people, in comparison to 1900 when the world had about 1.6 billion people. Death rates and Green Revolution technologies were lowered by medical and sanitation advances. The new ability of humankind to tap the energy potential of fossil fuels lay in a second cause of environmental stress. This led to oil in the twentieth century and coal in the nineteenth.