Even within the Anthropocene Working Group (AWG), their efforts to define an epoch is fraught with difficulty. The AWG is the official group responsible for finding the “golden spike” a geological marker to define the new era, however there are too many different markers available to consider them as an irreversible crossing of a geological threshold. One of the strongest indicators is the plutonium fallout from nuclear testing which can be found in the Arctic ice cores and lake sediments, indicating that the beginning of the nuclear age triggered the Anthropocene. Although there is solid evidence for this theory, many others are backing up the idea of how the start of the “Great Acceleration” in 1950 is the beginning of the Anthropocene. Based on a graph that shows the socioeconomic and earth system trends we are able to see a clear trend of exponential increase in both set of graphs from 1950 onwards making the Great Acceleration a strong contender to prove the beginning of the Anthropocene (Fig 5).
Resolving the dichotomy of Anthropocene
Due to the popularity of the term, its definition developed different connotations amongst various scholarly disciplines. Although the concept of Anthropocene is universally understood as the impact of human activity on earth, the term is still used loosely amongst people which results in dichotomy of the word. For example, political dichotomies insert Anthropocene into classic conservative versus liberal arguments while philosophical dichotomies centre around good versus dystopian outcomes of Anthropocene and whether humanity is part of what historically has been called nature. With so many bases to define what Anthropocene is, an official definition and recognition of the term would provide the much-needed clarity amongst many disciplinary when it comes to defining what the Anthropocene is.
Click here to learn about the criticisms of calling it the Anthropocene.
Header credit: Photo by Brad Knight on Unsplash