As we hear more and more about climate change, pollution, and species extinction, some people may wonder how we got here. Some may wonder what all the fuss is really about. Some may even wonder if Donald Trump was correct when he declared that “global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing noncompetitive”—that it is nothing more than a hoax. In The Anthropocene Epoch, we will examine how humankind has altered the character of our home—planet Earth—over the last 10,000 years. We will take a brief tour through the many ways in which we have dramatically improved our standard of living and made life much easier for most people around the world in just a few centuries, even in the last few decades. We will also examine how our growing numbers are putting a strain on Earth’s ecosystems. We will see how human development, consumption, and waste are putting our unprecedented standard of living at risk. We will be reminded of how we (humankind) have changed our world, and how we have the ability to preserve it, if we will.