Charles Darwin upset many people with his 1859 publication About the origin of species. Like Copernicus and Galileo before him, Darwin fundamentally reconsidered man's place in the natural world. Victorian society believed that a benevolent creator created the earth and all its species at once; homo sapiens Near the top of the great chain of existence. Darwin showed that this is not the case. New life forms, including humans, arise as generations adapt to changes over millions of years, and all species share one giant family tree. Darwin was attacked extensively. His theories infuriated competitors and turned „friends into deadly enemies,“ as his biographer Janet Brown puts it.
Today, we face a similar rejection of scientific evidence in geology, the discipline that helped vindicate Darwin. The 22-member Subcommittee on Quaternary Stratigraphy (SQS), part of the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS), considered the proposal to name the beginning of a new epoch in Earth's history the Anthropocene. Twelve middle school students voted „no.“ kill A proposal. However, the process was marked by irregularities. The SQS voted before the IUGS Geological Ethics Committee's superior recommendations were implemented, and 11 of the voters, including 10 „no“ votes, were over term limits and therefore ineligible to vote. Ta. When the SQS chair and vice chair objected, they were removed from their executive positions and the chair resigned.
The panel of experts determined that the parameters defining the Holocene have not only been exceeded, but have also been breached in some areas.
Fierce infighting in academia is nothing new, but this storm has important implications for the rest of us. Geological periods define unique intervals in Earth's history and are defined by significant changes in geological deposits, such as fossils and geochemical signals. Although geological and other scientific evidence clearly points to a transition away from the Holocene, which represents relatively stable climatic conditions for the past 11,700 years, and into the anthropogenicly modified Anthropocene, , which means we have put the Earth in a completely new orbit compared to any other orbit. It's happened before.
The debate over whether humanity has entered a new geological epoch began in 2000 when Nobel Prize-winning chemist Paul Crutzen interrupted a meeting of the International Geosphere and Biosphere Program. Scientists were reporting new changes to the systems they studied. „Stop calling it the Holocene,“ Crutzen fumed. “We are in the Anthropocene,” Crutzen said. claim It means that the parameters that define the Holocene have been violated by human activity.
What is a human being? beaver, prairie dogs, earthworms, and many other species have been modifying the Earth for thousands of years. For example, different approaches to agriculture have reshaped ecosystems. Around mid 20sth But something new happened in the century.Population, production and consumption of goods, and globalization began to increase exponentially. Historian John McNeil and chemist Will Steffen have named this intensifying phase the Great Acceleration. Environmental geographer Ruth Defries calls it the Big Ratchet.
An algal bloom caused by a fertilizer runoff around the Swedish island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea.
european space agency
carefully and strictly expert panel Thirty-three scientists, called the Anthropocene Working Group (AWG), reviewed Crutzen's claims. Over his 14 years, the AWG (of which Barnosky, a co-author of this article, is also a member) reviewed hundreds of studies and conducted additional studies of their own.Together with leading scientists in related fields, the AWG Decided Yes, the parameters that define the Holocene have not only been significantly exceeded across the world, but also destroyed in some regions, and the Earth system has crossed the threshold to a new normal.
The next question for geologists to define geological time scales was when exactly that change occurred. Major segments in Earth's history are characterized by major changes in geological strata. Ages can be determined in lake and ocean sediments, ice cores, peat bogs, and coral reefs. All of this provides conclusive evidence that the Anthropocene was real.
The geological record changes from around 1950. dramatically. Geologists around the world are discovering fallout from nuclear bomb tests, various types of pollutants including „forever chemicals“ and plastic particles, and new man-made minerals and rocks, including large amounts of concrete. We see the relocation of terrestrial and marine sediments due to agriculture, cities, roads, dams, and water distribution systems. The unique assemblage of plants and animals reflects the massive transport of species around the world, and the replacement of bones of wild animals with the remains of cattle, sheep, and other livestock. This record quietly claims that for the first time in Earth's history, a single species has become a geological force. Homo sapiens.
Failure to name the Anthropocene will hinder efforts to support safe play spaces for humans and other species.
However, for a new era to be officially designated, the evidence must be globally synchronized. This means that the era must appear on Earth at the same time in the geological record. This distinction is important. Local developments do not necessarily lead to changes in the functioning of the Earth system as a whole. Global changes occur with considerable intensity.
2023, 12 teams of scientists reporting from around the world. evidence will help you decide single site An example can be taken of the transition from the Holocene to the Anthropocene. From the Baltic Sea to Antarctica, from the San Francisco Bay Area to lakes in China, and coral reefs in the Gulf of Mexico and the Indian Ocean, the markers were almost numbingly uniform. Canada's Crawford Lake shows this history very clearly, as a silent witness to the sediments deposited there over thousands of years. Was chosen AWG to maintain the “golden spike” of the Anthropocene. As elsewhere, the lake showed a persistent geological signal, which strengthened markedly in the 1950s.
A recent vote allows the gatekeepers of geological eras to ignore evidence from hundreds of peer-reviewed studies, rendering the Anthropocene a relative term that cannot be pinpointed, pinpointed, or measured in time and space. He claimed that there was.
Crawford Lake in Ontario, Canada. There, a golden spike likely marked the beginning of the Anthropocene.
Cole Burston/Canadian Press (via AP)
In opposing the Anthropocene, this minority of scientists ignores the most central tenet of their discipline: to rely on data rather than beliefs and convictions.They are claim Humans have been reshaping the environment at least since the advent of agriculture.th The period after the century is not special enough to be designated as a geological period. They fail to acknowledge that early developments in human technology did not have a simultaneous impact on a global scale, as evidenced in the mid-2020s.th century. These advances were part of the build-up to the Anthropocene, but at the same time they did not have a rapid impact on the entire planet. fundamentally change Earth's Operating System as Progress in the Mid-2020sth The century was like that.
Some cultural commentators opine that geologists will continue to recognize the Anthropocene, whether or not they officially define it. artist,Writer, historian, sociologist, epidemiologist, and others do not rely on formal designations to confirm that we all live in an increasingly precarious environment. However, an international scientific consensus based on vast evidence and analysis can guide us as we meet the challenges. If we do not name the Anthropocene to reflect the massive disruption that began with the Great Acceleration and continues today, it will be safe for humans and the countless species on our planet to operate. Efforts to maintain space will be hampered. The window of opportunity to take effective action to change our dangerous trajectory is rapidly closing.
In the past, there has been fierce resistance to paradigm-shifting discoveries that change fundamental ways of thinking about Earth's history. For example, the fact that plate tectonics continues to shift continents, or that a meteorite impact caused a mass extinction of dinosaurs, is anathema to many people who hold tightly to their inherited worldview. It was a concept. Eventually, the evidence was accepted by new generations and these concepts were incorporated into textbooks.
Darwin may have been intrigued by the irony that the Anthropocene, in a sense, restores the Biblical vision of humanity's place on Earth. You may be surprised to learn that over many years of natural selection, a small, inconspicuous mammal has acquired the power to change the entire planet. Darwin may even have analyzed lake sediments for his own research into the Anthropocene. Looking at the evidence of a new era, his main question may have been: „Can humans adapt to the changes we have caused?“ „How much time do you have?“