World history The Anthropocene Epoch

The Anthropocene Epoch began in 1950.
The Anthropocene Working Group (AWG) proposes a new geological period known as the Anthropocene.
Crawford Lake near Toronto in Canada’s Ontario Province is the Anthropocene’s unique reference point.

The term “Anthropocene” was coined in 2000 by Nobel Prize-winning chemist Paul Crutzen and biology professor Eugene Stoermer.
Human Impact: The Anthropocene is a geological time interval characterised by profound changes in the Earth’s ecology as a result of human impact, notably since the Industrial Revolution began.
Environmental Changes: The Anthropocene is related with numerous phenomena such as global warming, sea-level rise, ocean acidification, large-scale soil erosion, lethal heat waves, and environmental deterioration.
Geological Strata: According to the AWG’s website, these changes are recorded in a distinct body of geological strata that has the potential to be preserved in the far future.

Geologists chose Crawford Lake in Canada’s Ontario Province for investigation over 11 other prospective sites.
Sediments retained: The lake’s sediment layers have retained the annual impact of human activities on the Earth’s soil, atmosphere, and biology.
Mid-Twentieth-Century Shift: An examination of Crawford Lake’s bottom sediments revealed a distinct shift from the mid-Twentieth-Century epoch, surpassing the limitations of the previous Holocene period.
Captured Fallout: Over time, the lake’s sediments have captured the fallout from large-scale fossil fuel burning, nuclear weapon explosions, and the dumping of plastic and fertilisers on land and in water bodies.

Community of Scientists Disagreements: Not all geologists agree on the Anthropocene epoch’s actuality.
Disagreements focus around the epoch’s specific commencement, whether it has already begun, and the sufficiency of evidence to indicate its arrival.

The geological time scale of the Earth is classified into five basic categories: aeons, eras, periods, epochs, and ages.
Fossil-Based Boundaries: Geological time scale boundaries correspond to the origin or extinction of distinct types of fossils.
Classification as of now: We are currently in the Phanerozoic aeon, Cenozoic epoch, Quaternary period, Holocene epoch, and Meghalayan epoch.

Crawford Lake was chosen because of its maintained sediment layers, which provide as an annual record of human impact.
Overwhelming consequences: Beginning approximately 1950, distinct and multiple signs in the lake’s sediments reveal that the consequences of human activities overwhelm the Earth system.
A distinct global ‘fingerprint’: The presence of plutonium as a result of nuclear weapon detonations is a harsh evidence of humanity’s dominance over the globe.
Approval Process: The AWG intends to submit a request for approval to the Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy (SQS) and the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS).
Final Approval: The 37th International Geological Congress, to be held next year in Busan, South Korea, is likely to issue final approval.

Geologists’ analysis of Crawford Lake gives solid evidence for the Anthropocene epoch’s existence.
Challenging The idea for the Anthropocene epoch calls into question the current interpretation of the Earth’s official geological timeline.
Future Determination: Further talks and approvals by international geological authorities will determine the Anthropocene epoch’s recognition and acceptance.

Source: https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/anthropocene/