The Anthropocene The age of humans

Humans have existed for a mere 200,000 years. Nonetheless, our impact on the Earth has been so significant that scientists are proposing that this period in the Earth’s history should be named the ‘Anthropocene’ — the age of humans.

The Earth is 4.5 billion years old, but we humans (Homo sapiens) have only been around for the last 200,000 years or so. Nevertheless, during that time, we have had a massive impact on the planet’s ecosystem.

We live in a geological epoch known as the Holocene that began approximately 11,700 years ago at the end of the last ice age.

However, it has been proposed that we are no longer in the Holocene but have entered a new era known as the Anthropocene – a new epoch dating from the commencement of significant human impact on the Earth’s geology and ecosystems.

Various start dates for the Anthropocene have been proposed, ranging from the beginning of the Agricultural Revolution 12,000–15,000 years ago to as recent as the 1960s.

This fascinating paper, Anthropocene began with species exchange between Old and New Worlds, proposes 1492 when Christopher Columbus discovered the Americas.

As do others, I favor the date of the first detonation of a nuclear device in New Mexico in 1945, towards the end of the second world war, code-named Trinity.

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• Humans have existed for a mere 200,000 years. Nonetheless, our impact on the Earth has been so significant that scientists are proposing that this period in the Earth’s history should be named the ‘Anthropocene’ — the age of humans.

Resources

• Wired: When Did the Anthropocene Actually Begin?

Posts that link to this post

•  We Live in Two Worlds The simple and the complex
•  A Brief History of Knowledge 200,000 years of history
•  The Journey of Knowledge and Innovation A historical timeline

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