The earth has changed radically due to human influence. The Anthropocene Working Group (AWG), an international research group consisting of geologists, stratigraphers and scientists from the humanities, has set itself the goal of defining the Anthropocene Earth Epoch on the basis of scientific findings and officially declaring it as soon as possible. The working group founded in 2009 is currently gathering evidence on how specific markers, exclusive characteristics of the Anthropocene, can be used to determine in rock strata the point in time when human influence on the Earth's geology became irreversible and, moreover, from which point on this evidence on the appearance of human traces in rocks could be easily detectable even in the distant future.
The AWG was founded by the Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy (SQS), a subcommittee of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS), and has since been working on the assessment of the Anthropocene as a new geological time unit. In 2016, the AWG decided by majority vote that the Anthropocene is a geological reality, an epoch, and that it should best be defined as starting from the mid-20th century onwards, correlating with the 'Great Acceleration' [I]. It should also be defined by a Global Stratotype and Point (GSSP), a specific reference point which defines the lower boundary of a stage on the geologic time scale. It provides evidence that something in nature has changed globally and abruptly.
In 2022, the AWG began the process of voting on which of twelve research sites would be the most appropriate location for a GSSP for the Anthropocene. On July 11th, the AWG will present its chosen site at the International Congress of Stratigraphy in Lille, France, and provide initial guidance on what historical date should be considered the start of the new Earth epoch.
If the GSSP site selected by the AWG successfully passes three further voting stages (by the SQS, the ICS and finally the International Union of Geological Sciences), it will be officially ratified and given a place in the International Chronostratigraphic Chart.
In this international SMC press briefing in advance of the international Congress of Stratigraphy, three experts in the field answered questions under embargo to explain the process of the Anthropocene Working Group and presented and discussed for the first time the characteristics of the chosen site where the GSSP can be clearly demonstrated. The Anthropocene epoch is ultimately associated with the idea that we humans no longer live in an environment that serves only as a stage or resource for us, but rather that humans are becoming the planetary force of Earth history, in which traditional dividing lines between nature and culture are dissolving with unprecedented and so far unabated consequences.
Expert Panel
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Prof. Francine McCarthy
Professor at the Department of Earth Sciences and appointed to the Department of Biological Sciences and the Environmental Sustainability Research Centre at Brock University, Canada and a voting member of the Anthropocene Working group
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Prof. Colin Waters
Honorary Professor at the School of Geography, Geology and the Environment, University of Leicester, UK and he is the Chair of the Anthropocene Working group
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Prof. Jürgen Renn
Director at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin, and director at the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology, Jena, Germany
Final statements from the press briefing
As a final question we asked what the most important evidence and the biggest argument is to call the Anthropocene:
Prof. Francine McCarthy
Professor at the Department of Earth Sciences and appointed to the Department of Biological Sciences and the Environmental Sustainability Research Centre at Brock University, Canada and a voting member of the Anthropocene Working group
„There is evidence globally of a massive shift, a tipping point in the Earth's system that is compelling. There is evidence at all of the twelve sites that we studied as a group and certainly the nine sites that went forward into that Anthropocene review publication that is open to everyone to read.“
Prof. Colin Waters
Honorary Professor at the School of Geography, Geology and the Environment, University of Leicester, UK and he is the Chair of the Anthropocene Working group
„We looked at eight very different environments across five different continents. And when you put twelve sites together, there is an incredible amount of consistency between them, which is something that we couldn't have anticipated when we started doing this work. So, it really endorses as a group all the twelve sites. It's a shame that we have to pick one site to be the GSSP, but actually the strength in the argument is the basis of the twelve sites together. When you combine them and read the stories that they tell you, it shows you that there is this very significant and very rapid change to the environment in a very short period of time. And that's the 1950s.“
Prof. Jürgen Renn
Director at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin, and director at the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology, Jena, Germany
„We are looking at an Earth system that is rapidly changing. And those changes can no longer be understood without taking into account the human interventions. We can really see that humans have basically created a new Earth sphere beyond the biosphere. Some call it the technosphere, the infrastructures, the enormous structures, cities, energy systems, traffic systems that humans have constructed. If we want to really understand the system, we have to not only take into account the traditional Earth spheres, like the hydrosphere, the atmosphere, the biosphere, but also this human technosphere. And that speaks very much for a real new understanding of Earth's history as well.“
Recording & Transcript
On our YouTube channel you can also see the video in speaker view or gallery view.
The transcript can be downloaded here.
Reference
[I] Steffen W et al. (2015): The trajectory of the Anthropocene: The Great Acceleration. The Anthropocene Review. DOI: 10.1177/20530196145647.
Further research information
Waters CN et al. (2023): Candidate sites and other reference sections for the Global boundary Stratotype Section and Point of the Anthropocene series. The Anthropocene Review. DOI: 10.1177/20530196221136422.
Anthropocene Curriculum: The geological anthropocene.
The webpage gives an overview about the work of the AWG and presents the evidence of twelfe research groups who have been seeking a Global Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) to formally define the Anthropocene as a geological epoch.
Max Planck Institute for the History of Science: Anthropogenic Markers.
The webpage presents and reflects on selected material markers of human impacts on earthly strata that were brought together by different research fields. Taken together, they form a unique interdisciplinary conversation across positions and perspectives, helping to map out and expand upon the many ways of tracing the evidence that defines the onset of a human-dominated and crisis-laden epoch.