Humans have made an indelible mark on the planet. Since the mid-20th century, we’ve accelerated the digging of mines, construction of dams, expansion of cities and clearing of forests for agriculture — activity that will be visible in the geological record for eons to come.
Some scientists are calling it the Anthropocene era, or the age of the humans (“anthropos” is Greek for human), and argue that geologists should recognize it as a distinct chapter in Earth’s history. But after more than a decade of investigation and debate, that won’t happen, at least for now.
In a contentious vote earlier this month, a panel of geologists declined to designate a new geologic epoch starting in 1952, when the United States tested its first thermonuclear bomb. The 1950s, proponents contend, marked an inflection point in humanity’s impact on Earth, as globalization, increased burning of fossil fuels and the use of nuclear weapons left unmistakable signs of our influence in the geologic record.
“There’s no doubt that the Anthropocene human transformation of the Earth is already in the geologic record, the evidence speaks for itself, it’s permanent and embedded in the crust of the earth,” says Erle Ellis, an environmental scientist at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. But that evidence extends much farther back in time than the 1950s, he says.