Would Adding the Anthropocene to the Geologic Time Scale Matter?

Abstract

Abrupt planetary change forced by the cumulative and overwhelming impacts of human activities in the mid-twentieth century supports a new geologic epoch, named after Anthropos, the agent of this change. This transformation extends well beyond Holocene norms and is identified in geologic records worldwide. A proposal to define the Anthropocene series/epoch in varved sediments from Crawford Lake, Ontario was rejected by the International Union of Geological Sciences, but the novel Earth System state will persist for tens of millennia, dampening Milankovitch forcing that paces glacial–interglacial cycles through the Quaternary Period.