The Anthropocene is the proposed geological epoch marking humanity’s outsized impact on the planet. Read more at straitstimes.com.
PARIS - Since 2009, a cloistered band of hard-rock geologists and other scientists have toiled on a mission of great consequence.
The first, roughly, is this: would aliens sifting through Earth’s layered rocks and sediment a million years from now discern a human signature distinctive enough to mark a clear geological boundary?Yes, the Working Group concluded, human appetites and activity have evicted the planet – and its inhabitants – from the stability of the Holocene epoch, which began 11,700 years ago as the last ice age ended.
The “winner” will be announced Tuesday in joint press conferences at the Max Planck Society in Berlin and a meeting of working group scientists in Lille, France.Presented as recommendations, the fruit of the Working Group’s long labours must now be validated by a gauntlet of sceptical, hard-nosed scientists at the International Commission on Stratigraphy and, higher up the food chain, the International Union of Geological Sciences .
At the same time, marking the end of the Holocene and the start of a new epoch would force us to ponder humanity’s devastating impact. “It’s the recognition that, ‘Oh my God, we have tipping points. Oh my God, the Holocene is the only state that can support us,’“ Johan Rockstrom, head of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, told Agence France-Presse.
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