2024-05-0411:54 Status:Complete Tags: Anthropology Environmental damages Environmentalism
Overview
The International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) is in charge of the Geometric Time Scale, and what differentiates one era from another. We have been living in the Holocene Epoch (12,000 years), defined by the previous Ice Age, but the next Epoch, The Anthropocene Epoch would start now, where it is suggested that human beings are having such a profound geological impact on the Earth that we are starting a new era. Where Anthropos- means human, and -cene means that it is an epoch of the Cenozoic. What typically marks the start of a new epoch is a geological shift in the rocks, known as a Golden Spike. For the Anthropocene Working Group, the Quaternary division set out to find this geological significance.
There were geological changes from the inception of humanity, the problem was that civilization has existed for thousands of years - thus making it difficult to find where the Anthropocene Epoch would start/Holocene Epoch end. As several major events in Anthropology were regionally bound, (e.g. The Development of Agriculture ~ 10,000BCE, Rise of Ancient Civilizations ~3,500BCE, Rise of Global Trade & Western colonialism 15th-17th Centuries, 2nd Agricultural Revolution 17th Century, 1st Industrial revolution 18th Century, 2nd industrial Revolution 19th Century) The most dramatic widespread change made (to convince the ICS) was The Great Acceleration of the Mid-20th Century as it was considered to be the most instantaneous global change.
The introduction of plastics, geochemical signals, fossil fuels, fertilizers, altering the nitrogen cycle, increased rate of extinction, moving plant and animal species across the planet etc. These are all indicators of a shift, but there had to be a golden spike to substantiate it. This took the form of Plutonium from the first hydrogen bomb (1950s sediment), in Crawford Lake, Canada (Small lake with a huge depth = dense sediment that is easy to track). Evidence of the hydrogen bomb was found in 11/12 of the samples, substantiating this shift. Bombs may not be the best marker of the impact of human beings, but it is one of the clearest indicators of this shift.
However, the ICS rejected this as the Anthropocene would be too insignificant relative to the scale of the overall timeline (dumbass reason but ok). 70 years in comparison to the entirety of 4.6 billion years is insignificant. It may not be recognized by the ICS, but that does not detract from the environmental impact human beings have had on the Earth. We do not need to reference geology to see this, and thus linking geology (finding the Earths billions of years of history to what is happening now is reductive of both fields)