LONDON, March 28 (UPI) -- Humans may be ushering in a new period of geological history because of the massive impact our species has had on the planet, research scientists say.
Experts say because of urbanization, pollution, travel, population growth, mining and use of fossil fuels, man has altered the planet in ways which will be felt for millions of years, The Sunday Telegraph reported.
Research scientists fear a sixth largest extinction in Earth's history with thousands of plants and animals disappearing because of the harm humans have inflicted.
This new time or epoch is being called the Anthropocene -- meaning new man, because it would be the first space of geological time shaped by the action of a single species, the Telegraph said.
The term has been in informal use for over 10 years, but a group of scientists has been gathering evidence which would support recognizing it as the successor to the current Holocene epoch.
The theory, proposed by several scientists including Nobel Prize-winning chemist, Paul Crutzen, has been advanced in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.
"The Anthropocene represents a new phase in the history of both humankind and of the Earth, when natural forces and human forces became intertwined, so that the fate of one determines the fate of the other. Geologically, this is a remarkable episode in the history of this planet," the journal reported.
Co-author Dr Jan Zalasiewicz, of the University of Leicester, added: "It is suggested that we are in the train of producing a catastrophic mass extinction to rival the five previous great losses of species and organisms in Earth's geological past."
