Hostages The Holocene deserves official recognition and some experts maintain it
The sudden changes throughout the foundations of the proposed Anthropocene Series (1952 CE) in valved sediments from Lake Crawford have been documented by numerous proxies with large acceleration (239+240PU, 137CS and F14C) that reflect nuclear weapons testing. Ecology (relative increase in deep-fit chrysophyte synura, reduction in diatom Lindabia mishiganiana). Credit: AGU Advances (2025). doi: 10.1029/2024AV001430
Humans have remodeled the Earth so deeply that in 2000 atmospheric chemist Paul Crutzen and biologist Eugene Stormer proposed that the Holocene era ended and the “Anthropocene” or the human epoch began.
However, despite the extent of human-induced changes, last year the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) opposed to giving anthropomorphic official recognition as anthropomorphic and geological age. Several scientists currently involved in this process have published commentary on AGU Advances, explaining why people think that personification is worthy of another opportunity for epoch status.
Francine McCarthy and her colleagues oppose two related criticisms of the proposal. First, the proposed Anthropocene began only 72 years ago, but the era began millions of years ago, and secondly, the future is not part of a geological age, so it is inappropriate to designate an epoch based on the future.
The length of the Anthropocene lies next to the point, the authors say, as functionally the Earth is already in an unprecedented time. Energy consumption since the mid-20th century has been six times higher in the 11, 700 years that have come before. As a result, global temperatures are rising sharply, with a wide range of impacts on everything from marine levels to biodiversity to ice sheets.
These changes are long lifespans and some are irreversible. In fact, the onset and magnitude of such a dramatic change for such a short timescale highlights the point that the Earth has entered a new era, the author says.
While some stratigraphies argue that specifying anthropochs politicizes geology, the authors argue that ignoring data to maintain the status quo is political. Similarly, the author takes umbrella with reports that the issue cannot be reviewed for ten years. Therefore, the question of whether we live in the Anthropocene will be resolved until then. “Not,” they wrote.
More details: Francine MG McCarthy et al. Will the Anthropocene be added to the issue of geological timescales? AGU Advances (2025). doi: 10.1029/2024AV001430
The story has been reissued courtesy of EOS, hosted by the American Geophysics Union. Read the original story here.
Quote: The Anthropocene deserves official recognition, and some experts maintain it from March 25, 2025 (March 25, 2025) obtained from https://phys.org/news/2025-03-03-Anthropocene-Recognition-experts.html (March 25, 2025)
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