This is the Anthropocene

You may be familiar with time periods like the Cambrian, Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous periods. These time periods signify great lengths in time of the Earth’s history. This is relatively well-known information; at the very least, everyone associates the word “Jurassic” with a time period in the past when dinosaurs ruled the Earth.

We are currently in a different period called the Quaternary period. The Quaternary period has been going on for about 2.6 million years and is split into smaller lengths of time called epochs. There have been two epochs in this period so far, most recently the Holocene, which started approximately 11,650 years ago. However, there is some discussion in the geologic community about whether we are now in a third epoch called the Anthropocene.

The Anthropocene is defined by the impact that humans have had on the planet. Human activity is now the primary influence on the climate and environment. All previous time periods besides the Holocene cannot be measured in exact dates because they were too long ago. Nobody was around to record data from hundreds of millions of years ago, and there’s really nothing that can be done about that. The boundaries for these immeasurable time periods are instead marked by a Global Stratigraphic Section and Point [GSSP] (to be further explained, don’t worry) also called a “golden spike.”

A Global Stratigraphic Section is a geographical area somewhere in the world that has been officially agreed upon as a good place to look for data from this time period. There are several, more specific criteria, but for the purposes of this article we’ll leave it at this: it’s a place not on any tectonic faults, that has minerals and fossils from that specific time period that can be radiometrically dated. What is called the “golden spike” is actually just a marker (interestingly enough, not made out of gold but bronze) that is put onto a certain point that marks a very specific piece of evidence. This golden spike marks the lower boundary of whichever period it’s measuring. This allows researchers to return to the GSSP and conduct more research about that time period based on the fossils, rocks, minerals, etc. that are present in the GSSP.

The Anthropocene could be measured by a GSSP, just like all other previous time periods. This would keep it consistent with the rest of time, which is nice in the science community. Most likely, it would be in ice layers of Greenland or Antarctica where there is an aerosol sulfate “spike” that was caused by the eruption of Mount Tambora in 1815.

The other option would be using a numerical date to mark the start of the Anthropocene. But what would this date be? This is part of what the discussion is about. It should ideally be around the time that humans began their wrath on the planet. Many scientists would say this is around the time of the Industrial Revolution back in the late 1700s to the early 1800s. During the Industrial Revolution, there was a technological boom across the western hemisphere that started a massive incline in the impact that humans had on the planet that has only continued to increase.

For example, humans have caused an increase in erosion. This started before the Industrial Revolution with both farming and construction but then dramatically increased. After (and since) the Industrial Revolution, the global temperature started to rise, levels of carbon dioxide began to increase, and human population levels exploded from less than one billion to seven billion. Carbon dioxide and methane levels continue to rise. More than this, humans have been causing the extinction of many plants and animals all over the world. This mass extinction of animals began before the Industrial Revolution when our neanderthal ancestors began to hunt megafauna to extinction but has only increased since the boom of the food industry. Furthermore, the oceans’ levels are rising and are becoming more acidic. Ocean water is now .1 pH units more acidic than it was pre-Industrial Revolution.

The problem is that the Industrial Revolution didn’t happen everywhere at once. China and India are only just now industrializing. This means that choosing a numerical date to be recognized as the start of the Anthropocene, a world-wide phenomenon, might be difficult.

Measuring the Anthropocene will surely keep geologists thinking for a while. But what does the Anthropocene mean for you?

It is now indisputable; there is empirical evidence that suggests that humans have caused something completely new on this planet. There is no question that we are in an age where our power over the environment should be used with caution. Now that we know humans are the biggest contributor to climate change, it is time to make moves to stop the destruction of the planet. Earth is the only habitable planet that we know of, and if we do too much damage, there’s no going back. The Anthropocene was started by humans and can be ended by them just as quickly. Destruction of the planet will bring destruction of humanity. Think about it.