Scientists argued that mankind had been reshaping the planet long before the 1950s:
A top panel of geologists has decided not to grant Anthropocene, or 'human age', its own distinct place in Earth's geological timeline after disagreeing over when exactly the era might have begun.
After 15 years of deliberation, a team of scientists made the case that humankind has so fundamentally altered the natural world that a new phase of Earth's existence – a new epoch – has already begun.
Soaring greenhouse gases, the spread of microplastics, decimation of other species, and fallout from nuclear tests – all were submitted as evidence that the world entered the Anthropocene in the mid-20th century.
But the proposal was rejected in a contentious vote that has been upheld by the International Union of Geological Sciences, the field's governing body said in a statement published on its website on March 21.
[...] Despite this, the Anthropocene would endure as a widely used term: "It will remain an invaluable descriptor of human impact on the Earth system," the union said.
In 2009 scientists began an enquiry that ultimately concluded that the Holocene epoch – which began 11,700 years ago as the last ice age ended – gave way to the Anthropocene around 1950.
They gathered a trove of evidence to show this, including traces of radioactive material found in the layered sediment of lakes, the global upheaval of plants and animals, and omnipresent "forever chemicals".
But opponents argued mankind had been reshaping the planet long before the 1950s, pointing to defining moments like the advent of farming and the industrial revolution.
[...] "I feel this has been a missed opportunity to recognise and endorse a simple reality, that our planet left its natural functioning state in the mid-20th century," Dr Head, a professor of earth sciences at Brock University in Canada, told AFP.
There was no disagreement that 'the age of man' had resulted in profound planetary changes, said Dr Erle Ellis, an environmental scientist critical of the Anthropocene proposal.
But scientists weren't convinced this impact represented an epoch, no less one that definitively began only seven decades ago, said Dr Ellis, professor of geography and environmental systems at the University of Maryland.
"The truth is, there was never a need for a firm boundary. It just wasn't the critical thing," he told AFP earlier this month after the proposal was first voted down.
Previously:
• Human Made Materials Now Outweigh Earth's Entire Biomass
• Anthropocene Angst and Godzilla's Growth
• The Latest Chapter in Earth's History: The Meghalayan Age
• For the Second Time, We Are Witnessing a New Geological Epoch: The Anthropocene
Related Stories
11,700 years ago, the Earth suffered a catastrophic climate change. As the ice age ended, sea levels rose by 120 meters, the days grew warmer, and many kinds of plant and animal life died out. But one animal began to thrive more than ever before. Homo sapiens, which had already spread to every continent except Antarctica, came up with a new survival strategy. Today, we call it farming.
Thanks in part to that innovation, humans survived to witness the dramatic transition from the Pleistocene epoch to the Holocene—it was the first such geological transition in almost 2 million years. But now geologists say we're witnessing another transition, as we move from the Holocene into an epoch called the Anthropocene. Here's what that means.
[Continues...]
Welcome to the Meghalayan Age - a new phase in history
The official history of Earth has a new chapter - and we are in it. Geologists have classified the last 4,200 years as being a distinct age in the story of our planet. They are calling it the Meghalayan Age, the onset of which was marked by a mega-drought that crushed a number of civilisations worldwide.
The International Chronostratigraphic Chart, the famous diagram depicting the timeline for Earth's history (seen on many classroom walls) will be updated. It should be said, however, there is disquiet in the scientific community at the way the change has been introduced. Some researchers feel there has been insufficient discussion on the matter since the Meghalayan was first raised as an idea in a scholarly paper [DOI: 10.1002/jqs.2565] [DX] six years ago.
[...] The Meghalayan, the youngest stage, runs from 4,200 years ago to the present. It began with a destructive drought, whose effects lasted two centuries, and severely disrupted civilisations in Egypt, Greece, Syria, Palestine, Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley, and the Yangtze River Valley. It was likely triggered by shifts in ocean and atmospheric circulation. The Meghalayan Age is unique among the many intervals of the geologic timescale in that its beginning coincides with a global cultural event produced by a global climatic event, says Stanley Finney, professor of geological sciences at Long Beach State University and Secretary-General of the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS), which ratified the ICS proposal.
The middle phase of the Holocene will be referred to as the Northgrippian, and runs from 8,300 years ago up to the start of the Meghalayan. The onset for this age was an abrupt cooling, attributed to vast volumes of freshwater from melting glaciers in Canada running into the North Atlantic and disrupting ocean currents. The oldest phase of the Holocene - the exit from the ice age - will be known as the Greenlandian.
Scientists are still working on defining the (ongoing) Athropocene and some have criticized this new definition.
Related: For the Second Time, We Are Witnessing a New Geological Epoch: The Anthropocene
Crystals Win in the Anthropocene: 208 Manmade Minerals Identified
Anthropocene News: Scientists Warn of "Sixth Mass Extinction", the Era of "Biological Annihilation"
A recent article explores Godzilla's physical growth over his big screen career (the longest in world cinema history).
Godzilla was born out of climate change in his native deep sea environment caused by nuclear testing at the Bikini Atoll in the 1950's and quickly rose to prominence on the big screen becoming the lead actor in a series of movies that continues to this day. The supersized saurian was finally granted citizenship in his longtime stomping grounds four years ago and employed as a "tourism ambassador."
Gozilla's rise in film has been accompanied by amazing physical growth at a rate 30 times faster than any creature on Earth.
When the dinosaur-like monster debuted on the silver screen in 1954, he stood a towering 164 feet (50 meters) tall. Now, 35 films later — the latest, "Godzilla: King of the Monsters," came out Friday (May 31) — the behemoth has more than doubled in size, currently reaching 393 feet (120 m) tall.
Researchers explored and dismissed various causes for this growth, including speculation that:
Human Made Materials Now Outweigh Earth's Entire Biomass
While the natural world continues to shrink, the 'anthropogenic mass' – the mass of all human-made materials created since the Industrial revolution, including houses, cars, roads, and aeroplanes – has grown. Indeed, the number of so-called technospecies has far surpassed the estimated 9 million biological species on the planet, according to a new groundbreaking study published on 10 December in the journal Nature.
[...] The new findings support recent calls to recognise a new epoch called the Anthropocene to account for the profound impacts of human activity on the Earth.
[...] At the beginning of the 20th century, the mass of human-produced objects was equal to about 3 per cent of the world's total biomass but in 2020, has reached about 1.1 teratonnes, exceeding overall global biomass. Moreover, this dramatic increase in human constructions has been accompanied by significant losses in biomass. Humanity has roughly halved the mass of plants since the first agricultural revolution, the authors say.
Journal Reference:
Emily Elhacham, Liad Ben-Uri, Jonathan Grozovski, et al. Global human-made mass exceeds all living biomass, Nature (DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-3010-5)
Where do we go from here?
(Score: 2, Troll) by Username on Monday March 25 2024, @01:47PM (14 children)
I don't know if there is a term for it, but all the climate activists seems to believe the earth had a static unchanging environment before humans came about. I call this static earth theory.
(Score: 5, Informative) by hendrikboom on Monday March 25 2024, @02:16PM (4 children)
No, the earth has not been static, and species have come and gone for a long, long time.
What we want to avoid is it becoming toxic to *us*. It's personal.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Mojibake Tengu on Monday March 25 2024, @03:21PM (3 children)
Perhaps we should start such avoiding with governments toxic to *us* first, instead of their distraction by environment.
Priorities. It's personal, too.
Rust programming language offends both my Intelligence and my Spirit.
(Score: 2) by The Vocal Minority on Tuesday March 26 2024, @03:01AM (2 children)
Such as the Chinese government?
Sorry couldn't resist ;)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 26 2024, @12:44PM
Nothing wrong with Chinese government (as long as you are an Uighur)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 28 2024, @09:17AM
Are you living in China, a current or former Chinese citizen? If yes then you should be careful: https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/03/29/the-disappeared-china-renditions-kidnapping/ [foreignpolicy.com]
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-48634136 [bbc.com]
If no, then you should worry more about your own government and maybe the US Gov[1].
Of course if China gets powerful enough then maybe we should worry. But they do seem to have a different style of doing things. Ask the Africans:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jw2BOG57_2M&t=210s [youtube.com]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5uzxV8ub9k&t=170s [youtube.com]
Things could change of course. But hey a senile US president might decide to start global nuclear war and according to the official way of doing things, nobody is allowed to stop him.
[1] Assange - not a US citizen, not in the USA, but in danger of being extradited to the USA for breaking laws that he didn't break or do not apply in his own country or his country of residence.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extraordinary_rendition [wikipedia.org]
See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evo_Morales_grounding_incident [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 2) by VLM on Monday March 25 2024, @04:17PM
They're conservatives. They get really wound up when you whip out the paleoconservative moniker.
Asking them why is a good time. "Nothing could be better than forcing everyone to live like 15000 BC. Why? Because I say so, of course!"
(Score: 5, Insightful) by turgid on Monday March 25 2024, @05:20PM
No, they just comprehend that the rate of change back then was many orders of magnitude slower. Life had more time to adapt by evolution.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 25 2024, @07:01PM (2 children)
It's unbelievable that the parent comment is modded "insightful" when it is clearly a steaming pile of JFKjr bullshit.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Monday March 25 2024, @07:07PM (1 child)
It seems that not everyone agrees with you.
[nostyle RIP 06 May 2025]
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 25 2024, @09:47PM
To tell the truth, I thought the "Funny" mod was the most appropriate. Or what, was it meant to be taken seriously? Can't believe that... There really are some fanatics out there worth mocking.
(Score: 5, Informative) by epitaxial on Monday March 25 2024, @07:53PM (2 children)
It's the rate of change, not the change itself you smooth brain. Here's a handy graphic. https://xkcd.com/1732/ [xkcd.com]
(Score: 5, Informative) by julian on Monday March 25 2024, @10:33PM
I was about to start looking for the link when I saw you already posted it. Thanks for saving me the trouble. Climate changing over millions of years is normal and well known; everyone who studies science knows this. Changing in a few hundred years due to the actions of a single species is unprecedented and probably unsurvivable.
(Score: 0, Troll) by khallow on Tuesday March 26 2024, @01:17AM
(Score: 3, Interesting) by aafcac on Monday March 25 2024, @09:31PM
I've literally never heard anybody say that who believed in climate change. I mean, for heaven's sake, the same folks upset about climate changing due to people are also people that recognize that the ice age happened and that it's happened more than once.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 25 2024, @02:30PM (1 child)
Maybe life on Earth will persist long enough for the surviving geologists to declare the beginning of the Anthropocene.
(Score: 2) by aafcac on Monday March 25 2024, @09:50PM
Yep, I think that's one of the big issues, geological time is long, and I do mean long, you're generally talking many times the length from the earliest man to us. A time frame that starts with the earliest of our non-ape ancestors is simply too short to be of much use in terms of geology.
(Score: 3, Offtopic) by JoeMerchant on Monday March 25 2024, @02:40PM (6 children)
Pluto is not a planet, and:
Because people say so, no other reasons ultimately matter.
🌻🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by Mojibake Tengu on Monday March 25 2024, @03:55PM (5 children)
That city was originally founded as Νέα Ῥώμη, or Nova Roma. Renamed later to Constantinopolis after some petty narcissist emperor. We central-easterners call it 'Cařihrad' for that reason. Those Turks should stay very prudent so it will not become renamed from Istanbul to Царьград too soon.
Rust programming language offends both my Intelligence and my Spirit.
(Score: 2, Informative) by khallow on Tuesday March 26 2024, @01:23AM (4 children)
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday March 26 2024, @05:08PM (3 children)
Squatters rights don't count for much.
Just ask the Cheyenne and Arapaho.
🌻🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday March 26 2024, @10:49PM (2 children)
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday March 26 2024, @11:30PM (1 child)
History repeats...
🌻🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 27 2024, @10:04PM
Every day...
(Score: 2) by VLM on Monday March 25 2024, @04:19PM (1 child)
Oh, I agree they probably can't assign a value to that. I just suspect it's about zero, whereas they suspect its closer to infinity, because it's their baby.
"invaluable", um yeah but not like they want to think.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by khallow on Tuesday March 26 2024, @02:10AM
But there's a second catch. A lot of distinctive geological features aren't considered eras because they're transition zones and far too short time-wise. For example, the KT boundary where the dinosaurs died or the Permian-Triassic extinction event (worst extinction event on record). The Anthropocene may turn out to be another such - especially if humanity quickly transitions to extinction or something else. It's not likely, for example, that we'll see millions of years of coke bottles. So there may be here a natural reluctance to declare an era when one doesn't yet know what the markers for the era itself will be as compared to the transitional markers of today.
For hypothetical example, we might be seeing a transition from pure carbon-based life to mostly silicon-based life (with humanity possibly surviving the transition in good order). That latter might be the real Anthropocene Era with the present stuff merely transitory phenomena. In which case, it might be prudent to wait a few hundred or few thousand years to nail down the era.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by shrewdsheep on Monday March 25 2024, @06:43PM (3 children)
AFAIK, traditionally, defining a peleontological era requires a sedimentary record to go with it which forms in millions of years. As such, humans have wreaked havoc on the surface of earth for much to short a period of time to allow for such a record to form. This seems to be a group of attention whores having come up with something to talk about: look I have defined a new era.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 25 2024, @09:08PM
Just wait. Eventually Lintilla(s) or other archeologists will be digging to better understand the shoe event horizon and accompanying strata.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Monday March 25 2024, @11:55PM
>As such, humans have wreaked havoc on the surface of earth for much to short a period of time to allow for such a record to form.
And I would say that humans have wreaked such havoc on the surface of the earth, creating massive sedimentary pockets so distinct from previous epochs to form an indisputable record of our activity, regardless of how short the time frame.
If Earth encounters 100 years of massive cometary bombardment, that too would create such a mark in our sedimentary record, in an even shorter period of time.
🌻🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by RamiK on Tuesday March 26 2024, @12:44PM
It's more virtue signal / alarm raising vs. corruption than attention whoring: Geologist are denying human influence on the environment due to making their money off petroleum and mining while the other earth scientists (paleontologists, geophysicists, geochemists, and paleoclimatologists) are all in agreement we're witness a significant enough climate change, mass extinction events and even magnetic pole shifts that the resulting sediments will clearly show as an era.
Basically, politics.
compiling...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 25 2024, @09:20PM
I think we have to go extinct before anybody can declare that. Or at least we have to become human(e)