The Anthropocene is a new geological epoch that scientists are trying to have officially recognized.
Lake Crawford, near Toronto in Canada, has been recognized since Tuesday July 11 as a reference site for the beginning of the Anthropocene. This one square kilometer body of water was chosen because it concentrates many emblematic traces of human activities. For example, sediments loaded with microplastics, ashes from the combustion of oil and coal, pollen concentrations that testify to the evolution of vegetation and temperature changes, and even fallout from explosions related to nuclear testing.
>> Canada: Scientists propose that Lake Crawford is the reference for the Anthropocene, a period marked by human action
These elements are proof that a new chapter in the history of the Earth has opened. Por this scientific working group, which started its work 14 years ago, and which chose this site, we have entered a new geological era, cshe from the Anthropocene, from the Greek “anthropos” which means “human”.
For these scientists, we have left the Holocene, itthat is to say the temperate period which started 12,000 years ago, at the end of the last glaciation and which allowed the development of the human species. VSar a break has occurred: certain environmental and climatic balances have been broken under the influence of human activities and under the influence of greenhouse gas emissions of course, but also under the influence of certain plastic, chemical, nuclear pollution, which will mark the earth for several millennia, as well as pressures on natural resources and biodiversity.
Change of period, or not?
For these scientists, the changes were so fast that they are bringing the planet into a period of unprecedented uncertainty climate and environmental. Ua period which therefore deserves a new name. But it’s not won yet, because, officially, we are still in the Holocene. Ia International Commission on Stratigraphy, which validates geological designations, has strict rules, in particular that of identifying a primary marker which marks the change of period.
For defenders of the Anthropocene, it could be, for example, the plutonium released by nuclear tests, because there are very few in the natural state. VSThis would therefore start this new era around 1945 – 1950, pa period which also corresponds to the acceleration of human consumption and industrial production.
IScientific debates are likely to be long: for example, it took 27 years for the international scientific community to validate the existence of the Quaternary, the geological era during which man appeared.