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The Anthropocene is a now rejected proposal for the name of a geological epoch that would follow the Holocene, dating from the commencement of significant human impact on Earth up to the present day. It was rejected in 2024 by the International Commission on Stratigraphy in terms of being a defined geologic period.[1] The impacts of humans affect Earth's oceans, geology, geomorphology, landscape, limnology, hydrology, ecosystems and climate.[2][3] The effects of human activities on Earth can be seen for example in biodiversity loss and climate change. Various start dates for the Anthropocene have been proposed, ranging from the beginning of the Neolithic Revolution (12,000–15,000 years ago), to as recently as the 1960s. The biologist Eugene F. Stoermer is credited with first coining and using the term anthropocene informally in the 1980s; Paul J. Crutzen re-invented and popularized the term.[4] However, in 2024 the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) and the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) rejected the Anthropocene Epoch proposal for inclusion in the Geologic Time Scale.[5][6][7]
The Anthropocene Working Group (AWG) of the Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy (SQS) of the ICS voted in April 2016 to proceed towards a formal golden spike (GSSP) proposal to define the Anthropocene epoch in the geologic time scale. The group presented the proposal to the International Geological Congress in August 2016.[8]
In May 2019, the AWG voted in favour of submitting a formal proposal to the ICS by 2021.[9] The proposal located potential stratigraphic markers to the mid-20th century.[10][9][11] This time period coincides with the start of the Great Acceleration, a post-World War II time period during which global population growth, pollution and exploitation of natural resources have all increased at a dramatic rate.[12] The Atomic Age also started around the mid-20th century, when the risks of nuclear wars, nuclear terrorism and nuclear accidents increased.
Twelve candidate sites were selected for the GSSP; the sediments of Crawford Lake, Canada were finally proposed, in July 2023, to mark the lower boundary of the Anthropocene, starting with the Crawfordian stage/age in 1950.[13][14]
In March 2024, after 15 years of deliberation, the Anthropocene Epoch proposal of the AWG was voted down by a wide margin by the SQS, owing largely to its shallow sedimentary record and extremely recent proposed start date.[15][16] The ICS and the IUGS later formally confirmed, by a near unanimous vote, the rejection of the AWG's Anthropocene Epoch proposal for inclusion in the Geologic Time Scale.[5][6][7] The IUGS statement on the rejection concluded: "Despite its rejection as a formal unit of the Geologic Time Scale, Anthropocene will nevertheless continue to be used not only by Earth and environmental scientists, but also by social scientists, politicians and economists, as well as by the public at large. It will remain an invaluable descriptor of human impact on the Earth system."[7]
- ^ Working Group on the ‘Anthropocene’ (26 March 2024). "Joint statement by the IUGS and ICS on the vote by the ICS Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy". Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy. International Commission on Stratigraphy. Retrieved 3 December 2024.
- ^ Waters, C.N.; et al. (8 January 2016). "The Anthropocene is functionally and stratigraphically distinct from the Holocene". Science. 351 (6269): aad2622. doi:10.1126/science.aad2622. PMID 26744408. S2CID 206642594.
- ^ Edwards, Lucy E. (30 November 2015). "What is the Anthropocene?". Eos. Vol. 96. doi:10.1029/2015EO040297.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
Dawson-2016was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ a b "International Chronostratigraphic Chart". International Commission on Stratigraphy. Retrieved 7 April 2024.
- ^ a b "What is the Anthropocene? – current definition and status". quaternary.stratigraphy.org. Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy, Working Group on the 'Anthropocene'. Retrieved 7 April 2024.
- ^ a b c The Anthropocene: IUGS-ICS Statement. March 20, 2024. https://www.iugs.org/_files/ugd/f1fc07_ebe2e2b94c35491c8efe570cd2c5a1bf.pdf
- ^ Carrington, Damian (29 August 2016). "The Anthropocene epoch: Scientists declare dawn of human-influenced age". The Guardian. Retrieved 29 August 2016.
- ^ a b Subramanian, Meera (21 May 2019). "Anthropocene now: Influential panel votes to recognize Earth's new epoch". Nature. doi:10.1038/d41586-019-01641-5. PMID 32433629. S2CID 182238145. Retrieved 5 June 2019.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
ICS_AWC-2019was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Meyer, Robinson (16 April 2019). "The cataclysmic break that (maybe) occurred in 1950". The Atlantic. Retrieved 5 June 2019.
- ^ "The Anthropocene". The Geological Society.
- ^ Waters, Colin N; Turner, Simon D; Zalasiewicz, Jan; Head, Martin J (April 2023). "Candidate sites and other reference sections for the Global boundary Stratotype Section and Point of the Anthropocene series". The Anthropocene Review. 10 (1): 3–24. Bibcode:2023AntRv..10....3W. doi:10.1177/20530196221136422.
- ^ Voosen, Paul (11 July 2023). "Pond mud proposed as Anthropocene's 'golden spike,' defining human-altered geological age". Science. 381 (6654): 114–115. doi:10.1126/science.adj6978. Retrieved 23 April 2024.
- ^ Zhong, Raymond (5 March 2024). "Are We in the 'Anthropocene,' the Human Age? Nope, Scientists Say". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 5 March 2024.
- ^ Zhong, Raymond (20 March 2024). "Geologists Make It Official: We're Not in an 'Anthropocene' Epoch". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 19 April 2024.