The term "Ecozoic era" was coined by Thomas Berry in conversation with Brian Swimme for their book The Universe Story in order to describe the geologic era that Earth is entering – when humans live in a mutually enhancing relationship with Earth and the Earth community.
Earth is entering a new geologic era because the previous one, the Cenozoic era (spanning the last ~65 million years), has been terminated by the western-style industrialized human community in the late 19th, 20th, and early 21st century.
While not intending to change the course of evolution or change the chemistry or large scale cycles of the planet, we have indeed done so. We have been, as a civilization, simply paying attention to our own human needs, acting out of what Dr. Brian Swimme calls "local mind".
While many individuals of the last centuries have been aware of the effects our way of life have had on the Earth community, as a society we have been unable to see those effects. We have not been paying attention to how our activities have impacted the larger community of life and those structures and systems that support life.
The evolutionary dynamics that created Earth now include the conscious and unconscious actions of the human family.
