‘Irreversible’ changes to the Earth provide striking evidence of new epoch, University of Leicester experts suggest
Geological critics of a formalised Anthropocene have alleged that the idea did not arise from geology; that there is simply not enough physical evidence for it as strata; that it is based more on the future than on the past; that it is more a part of human history than the immensely long history of the Earth; and that it is a political statement, rather than a scientific one.
Members of the international Anthropocene Working Group, including professors Jan Zalasiewicz, Colin Waters and Mark Williams of the University of Leicester’s Department of Geology and Dr Matt Edgeworth of the University’s School of Archaeology and Ancient History, have considered these various criticisms at length.
In a paper published in the journal Newsletters on Stratigraphy, the 27 co-author group suggests that the Anthropocene has already seen irreversible changes to the Earth, rather than just to human societies.
Professor Zalasiewicz explained: “As a striking and novel concept, the Anthropocene has attracted considerable support from geologists but also a range of criticism, questioning whether it should really join the Jurassic, the Pleistocene and other well-known units on the Geological Time Scale.
“This criticism is an essential part of the testing of this concept – for the Anthropocene to be taken seriously, the science behind it must be robust and based on sound evidence.
“Our research suggests changes to the Earth have resulted in strata that are distinctive and rich in geological detail through including such things as artificial radionuclides, plastics, fly ash, metals such as aluminium, pesticides and concrete.
“And, while the term does reflect change of significance to human society, and may be used in social and political discussions, it is based upon an independent reality.”
The Anthropocene – the concept that humans have so transformed geological processes at the Earth’s surface that we are living in a new epoch – was formulated by Nobel Laureate Paul Crutzen in 2000.
It has since spread around not just the world of science, but also across the humanities and through the media into public consciousness.
It is now being analysed by an international group of scientists – the Anthropocene Working Group – as a potential new addition to the Geological Time Scale, which would be a major step in its global scientific recognition.
Professor Mark Williams said: “These responses do not mean that the Anthropocene will be instantly formalised. There is still much work to do to gather the evidence for a formal proposal based upon a ‘golden spike’ – a physical reference point in strata, somewhere in the world, to define the beginning of this proposed new epoch.
“And, the benefits of formalising the Anthropocene, both for geologists and for wider communities, still need to be demonstrated in detail. But, these comprehensive responses show that the Anthropocene cannot be dismissed as a scientific fad.
“Humans really have made epoch-scale changes to the Earth’s geology, and analysis of these changes towards their formalisation in geology will continue.”
###
The paper, ‘Making the case for a formal Anthropocene Epoch: an analysis of ongoing critiques’, published in the journal Newsletters on Stratigraphy is freely available online at: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/schweiz/nis/pre-prints/content-nos_00_0_0000_0000_zalasiewicz_0385_prepub
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Can think of better names for the new era but the mods are watching .
A better name might turn out to be, not the ‘Anthropocene Epoch’ but the ‘Anthropocene Layer’ (cf. ‘Iridium Layer’) but I guess we’ll never know.
My position is that ‘Epochs’ only become dignified as such in retrospect, rather like Sainthood, and I fail to see the proposal as anything more useful than to massage the egos of the proposers.
Could call it t h e Carpocene due to the current amount of Carping going in the Sociopolitical scene
The “Anthropocene Layer” sounds ominous, in my ears. I sincerely hope civilisation will last longer than a geological moment.
I would prefer the Infinocene.
We are here and we will endure
I thought straight away of the Orwellocene – the era in which geology was redefined to suit the political extremes.
end of.
I’d go for the Hubrisocene, signifying the self-aggrandizement being indulged in by those who formulate this new “period,” which, as likely as not, will be subject to change before being formalized.
Tavroscoprocene
The transition layer will be marked by global climate change coprolites.
Dramacene
Good !
Moronocene
“Maroonoscene” … unintelligent shades of the colour red, and all that ?
Can’t remember who coined it but the best suggestion I read was the ‘Idiocene’ – just about sums up climate change religion!
I really like Idiocene, with Michael Mann, as president Camacho and Algore as Frito.
The Algorecene
And don’t forget, Prince Charles says “brawndo got lectrolytes”!
Love it!!
FUBARocene? SNAFUocene?
Carbonefarious period of the fantascene epoch . .
Someone needs to award this ding bats with some coprolite! Humans have changed the scenery …. but not the geologic period.
How about The Anthropohubriscene epoch?
As found on Twitter:
The Anthropocene Creed
I believe in CO2, the Gas Almighty,
Creator of Warming on Earth.
I believe in Climate Models, the only guides, our Lords.
Which are conceived by the Navier-Stokes,
Born to make climate scary
Suffered under climate skeptics
Were crucified by emails, dead and buried;
They descended into Hell;
On the Third Assessment Report they rose again from the dead;
They ascended into policy heaven
And sitteth on the right hand of the Administrator Almighty;
From thence they shall come to judge the emitters and the dead.
I believe in the Hot Spot;
The Holy Scientific Consensus;
The Communion of Experts;
The forgiveness of emissions;
The resurrection of Gaia;
And the Gas Everlasting.
Amen.
https://twitter.com/EuphoniusNuts/status/807012723754233856
Nice
ene
“… to judge the skeptics and the scholars” might be a better line.
Also, “I believe in strong positive forcing” should be in there somewhere.
Time for a Climate Council of Nicea.
Not too shabby.
That is effin’ PRICELESS LMAO.
I like it. Couldn’t you slide “The science is settled” in there somewhere? How about inserting another belief. One can never have too many. For instance:
I believe in the Hot Spot;
The Holy Scientific Consensus;
The Settled Science:
etc.
Double Nice
The Anthropocene Creed is bit longer than the shahada but the adherents are just as fervent. The pastaferians make more sense than either of those and are a lot less dangerous. LOL
some are building monuments
and some are jotting down notes
Where’s Quinn when you need him?
Hmmm, no “97%” in that creed? When’s the next draft due?
Thanks, I’ll send that to an ELCA Lutheran Bishop who told me I don’t understand the “principle of climate change”.
I hope you’ve found another denomination.
Looks like some geologists are getting jealous of the attention that some climate scientists enjoy. Let’s hope the reputation of another branch of science isn’t about to get tarnished by its political branch.
Looks like some geologists are getting jealous of the attention their climate change colleagues are enjoying. Let’s hope another branch of science isn’t about to get tarnished by its political wing.
The key question is how are epochs defined.
The proposed new epoch is defined based on biological processes. If prior epochs were also (partially) defined based on biological processes, then labeling this epoch as Anthropocene would not be inconsistent with past practices.
Are previous epochs based on biological processes? Yes, often. “They” try to put boundaries at something one can measure in the field and that’s usually the first or last appearance of some distinctive fossil. The whole geological/paleontological name thing is still kind of messy and untidy although it is (slowly) being systematized. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geologic_time_scale. FWIW, I think the Anthropocene is probably distinct enough to qualify as a subdivision but maybe closer to a Stage than an Era. Where to put it’s start date? I dunno? First appearance of worked tools? First appearance of artificial ceramics? First appearance of concrete? First appearance of discarded beer cans?
Yes, but you should give it 10 or 20 million years or so before dropping a tag on it. You can’t name epochs prospectively, only retrospectively.
It will be marked by layers of fossilized discarded ethics with heavier deposits in areas like East Anglia and Boulder, CO. There will be future arguments on whether the Anthropocene was truly a worldwide epoch till similar fossilized discarded ethics layers are discovered in Melbourne Australia and Auckland New Zealand indicating the period of extremely low ethics was indeed worldwide.
“The key question is how are epochs defined.”
I think there is a more basic question of whether we are in a new epoch at all using criteria that have already been established and used to differentiate between prior epochs. I see a difference between a first hypothesis that mankind has caused a new epoch entirely by creating a brand new sedimentary layer and a second hypothesis that mankind has, through nuclear tests, plastic waste products, etc. simply placed our signature or marking on the same sedimentary layer that defines the current Holcene. It sounds like what is going on is the second situation, which makes me think that this is just some part of a propaganda campaign.
As a science? Perfectly reasonable. Probably should be studied.
But this is just politics.
Three percent of the world’s land mass is urbanized. link The vast majority of the planet’s land mass is not much affected by humans.
Or the oceans!
It’s a bit more than just cities. For example in North America, we’ve managed to dot the countryside with artificial lakes, replace large areas of plains/prairies/forests with agriculture, alter the flow of rivers such that the Mississippi delta is washing away instead of building Southward, largely eliminate elm and chestnut from the Eastern forests, eliminate most large predators from many areas, etc,etc,etc. Not all of the changes are negative. Many of the plant and animal species that have been introduced are not a problem and some are beneficial. But humanity really is changing things in ways that will be detectable in the far distant future.
There is zero need for anyone to create a new label for our current times.
That is a task for future anthropologists and geologists, when they’ve identified methods to certify and date our strata worldwide.
Making this whole task of “naming” mankind’s current age as sheer hubris.
While historians name civilizations’ progress as “stone age”, “copper age”, “brass age”, “iron age”; that does not mean that the same strata is evident and identifiable worldwide unless there just happen to be human artifacts found.
While we have had an definite impact, I question if it is “era” forming. All life impacts the planet to some degree. The question is to what degree designates an “epoch”. But the reality is, all “eras” and “epochs” are merely arbitrary mankind definitions to group similar conditions into a handy talking tool. So man can define any group as an era or epoch. The planet will go its own way.
Since, in all likelyhood it looks like there won’t be many or any of us around in 100,000 years, it will be called the minsiculicene. A very thin marker layer of carbon dust and with a high concentration of iridium covering the remains of buildings and other structures and buried under multiple layers of silt and sand.
The hubris of those people is staggering. Maybe in a hundred years, there may be solid evidence of mankind’s effect on the planet, but not now. But then that wouldn’t suit their needs. It’s all about politics and reinforcing their prejudices
Or arrogance. The sun revolves around these people.
No, in climate true believer minds, the sun shines out of their a$$es.
The only thing “man made” about “climate change” is that it is created in the human mind. It is not based on observing reality.
I was trying to think of something to say that the universe revolves around large gassy giants (Them), but could not quite tie it in with Uranus.
Patrick brilliant! Possibly you could have put “I couldn’t get anything close to Uranus”.
Hubrisene?
I wonder how thick the Anthropocene strata will finally become? Perhaps a few mm?
From Kansas Geological Survey:
Deposits judged to be Jurassic in age …{in Kansas, USA]. They consist primarily of varicolored shales and red sandstones and attain a maximum thickness of about 350 feet.
How thick is the K-T boundary?
keith Trenberth?
Kevin – but good one!
In part (and not to be cavalier or anything like that), the thickness varies depending upon the distance from the impact site in the offshore Yucatan. Close to the impact, you can find a layer several centimetres thick, reducing to a few millimetres, and finally to a “feather edge” (ICS definition) at remote locations.
Sly wolf K-T.. It’s er…. just a boundary. ‘Anthropocene Layer’ has some resonance, but, as an epoch, it’s premature. We wouldnt have called the Jurassic a “Period” when it had just begun. We would have to have waited until it’s over! If we had not been hit by a large bolide it may have lasted until the Pleistocene. I think Holocene is still going til the next glacial period when the tiny ‘layer’ will largely be scraped up again. Glass, concrete metals plastics…are all degradeable. The tropics may not be scraped but deterioration is quicker there.
Assuming the Anthropocene is completed when we go extinct, yeah, but then who cares? If some green slime spitters come from another world they’ll simply see the Holocene as the interglacial before the last two or three of them or it will all just be nesting grounds.
Agreed. Not an era or an epoch, more an event.
If you think about this man has influenced very deep into the ground. Mine shafts are 1000’s feet deep. Building foundations are 100’s feet deep. We have altered a vast areas of the surface of the earth. 10 million years from now all this still be in evidence. It’s quite reasonable we have created a new epoch.
It’s the name you can question….anthropoids are all higher apes….most have no to minute effect…..it should called something like the sapianocene
Locally there will be significant effects, but to warrant giving it a geological name, it needs to be present in large areas where someone arbitrarily digs in the future. If you’ve ever tried digging for archaeology – it’s not that easy to find it even though we know there’s a lot of it.
fly over the country and look out the window … we have not altered vast areas of the country … and if man suddenly disappeared in 100 years you would be hard pressed to find evidence of all this alteration …
10 million years from now
=====================
human influence on the planet will be as evident as a hand removed from a bucket of water. Only the most sensitive of tests can reveal the hand was ever there.
A correction. Not many structures have foundations 100s of feet into the ground, that would be quite unusual indeed! The overwhelming majority of buildings have their foundations only a few feet into the ground!
More evidence that Jamie is probably a city dweller.
No one who lives in rural areas would make the mistake of thinking that we have altered vast areas of the planet.
I agree with Jamie’s argument. A geologist of the future, even one of today, will need to account for earth moving activities that are extremely common and widespread. Concrete and asphaltic roadbeds are the most obvious elements. Every gravel based dirt road is evidence that man has passed this way and has altered the earths surface. Every surface mine, mine tailing, and mine reclamation, has indelibly left the mark of a geologic event occurring in the “Sapianpocene” or “Homocene”.
Ten million years from now there will be building foundations from this era? In what fantasy world to you live?
@Sheri, Where do you think thousands of tons of concrete is going to go? Even if it weathers, the soils and consolidated strata will be of obvious chemical differences to the surroundings.
When Italian marble and Norwegian granite are found in a petrified Kansas landfill, you have to look beyond normal geologic processes for their provenance.
If we can identify an Iridium layer worldwide to separate the Cretaceous from the Paleocene, I would be surprised that 200 years of tilling the Great Plains wouldn’t show up 10 million years from now as an unconformity boundary layer in the stratigraphic column.
Getting down to the nitti-gritty, where does this “Man-influence” era/epoch start? I mentioned that large earth works, overturned sediments, mine workings, stone work and movement are an identifying characteristic of the strata. That being the case, the start of this era ought to include the Bronze age, the Pyramids, Stone buildings, and the copper, tin and gold mines of Africa and Asia.
Man’s earth moving activities pale compared to natures.
Gravel roads disperse over time, in a few hundred years, without maintenance there will be no evidence that a gravel road ever existed.
Concrete and asphalt roads may last for a bit longer.
Once a pit mine has filled in from blowing dust it will be just another depression the bedrock.
Mines might be evidence, assuming they haven’t collapsed or been filled in before then.
Once the concrete degrades and disperses, it’s pretty much indistinguishable from other deposits.
As to the marks that farming leaves, that to will be erased once the prairie grasses and forests take control again.
10 million years from now, the continents will not be the continents. So there may be some evidence. There may not. If man is still around in 10 million years, there will be. But even today, finding ancient cities is often a process of hit and miss. And they are only hundreds or thousands of years old. not 10 million.
@MarkW, Man’s earth moving activities pale compared to natures.
That all depends upon the area. No amount of time will restore the coal seam being mined in the Black Warrior Basin. A geologic cross section drawn a million years in the future across any current mine workings is going to have unconformities in the coal seam or ore body and chaotic overburden that are inexplicable without the notion that they were previously worked by intelligent beings.
http://www.wyohistory.org/sites/default/files/coal5.jpg
This would be prime space for sinking CO2. Grow hundreds of acres of fast growing trees. Harvest and replant every ten years and bury the trees in places like this old coal mine thereby sinking and sequestering the carbon long term.
@Bryan A, RE planting trees as reclamation of a coal mine.
You might observe from the picture, that this isn’t prime tree growing country today in Wyoming. The coals were formed in the Paleocene and Eocene after the Cretaceous seaway retreated. http://www.wsgs.wyo.gov/energy/coal-prb
I have suggested that the area of reclaimed surface coal mines should be a useful areas for large scale solar collection plants. The surface is already disturbed and no-need to traipse over hundreds of square miles of untouched desert. Roads, rails, and some electrical infrastructure are already in place to service the coal mine.
Edit to my 5:49 pm post. The picture is the not from the Black Warrior basin.
It is the Black Thunder coal mine in the Power River Basin of Wyoming.
A very condescending statement; meaning that you haven’t thought about it, nor do you expect us to think about. Instead you demean our current view(s), whatever they are, and insist we accept yours.
Modern man’s several thousand year geological record is mere surface scrapings on a massive ball of iron, rock, dirt, life detritus with an amazing surface layer of water.
Tunnels? After millions of years erosion, seepage, faulting, bat guano, surface animal nestings, and collapse will resemble many other natural cave systems.
At ten to twenty feet per basement level, just how many buildings have ten or more floors underground?
One place I worked had three basement levels; and the odd thing is they named the upper two basement levels “Promenade 1 & 2”.
I earned some serious demerits when I asked one of the bosses, “Who do you expect to fool? No one I know would ever mistake a basement floor for any sort of promenade.”
“Look at that guy! He put up a large picture of a sunlit window with flowers outside. He know exactly where he is.”
That earned me a dour look without words.
Ten million years seriously changes the face of the Earth. It is called erosion, tectonics, weathering, siltation, sedimentation, uplift and mountain building.
Natural processes will reclaim and reconstruct every bit of Earth’s surface. Nothing will be wasted.
Man’s few decades of modern living will leave few traces.
Concrete weathers away.
Gravel roads will erode spreading gravel over a wide area.
Asphalt will lose most if not all volatiles and what is left will crumble and weather.
Some portions of Roman roads will still exist. Roman road construction involved many layers of foundation at least two meters deep, with many roman roads built on three plus meters of road foundation.
There are multiple places on Earth where large populations lived. Populations whose civilization flourished up to several thousand years ago; though quite a few flourished just a few centuries ago.
Buildings built with massive granite or basaltic rock still have foundations and large structures evident to tease modern man. Beyond pottery and few other enduring pieces of evidence, locating, reconstructing and fully understanding those civilizations is extremely difficult.
Civilizations that existed during modern mankind’s flourishing. Yet their traces are rapidly disappearing.
In a modern Western abode, your bathtub and tub are most likely to survive for long periods.
Even stainless steel is only called stainless steel since surface chemical decomposition is slow in modern man terms. Geologically, that decomposition is still rapid.
Plastics? Under exposure to our sun’s ultraviolet light, they will decompose and weather. Buried, again in geological time plastics will lose volatiles and plasticizers, leaving a brittle structure that will eventually pulverize into molecular dust.
It will take very meticulous scientists through sheer perseverance great effort to sift and separate the remains of plastic. Unlike heavy minerals like carbide and diamond, sifting will require special effort to separate uniquely a lighter material without contamination.
Under metamorphic conditions; e.g. when California through to Alaska are eroded onto the subducting continental plate. Well, maybe pockets of plastic hydrocarbon residues will be the genesis for new diamond crystal formation.
As thick as a tree ring?
With a name like ‘the international Anthropocene Working Group’ they have of course no bias i their ‘response to criticism’!
I agree with Robert from oz – many more fitting names; I’ll write down a few on paper in the evening (and burn them later to avoid mods…) 😉
They largely relied on Marcott et al, 2013 to define the onset of the Anthropocene, despite the fact that one of the Marcott authors categorically stated that their reconstruction lacked the resolution to be used for such a purpose.
I pointed this out to Dr. Waters in a very constructive email exchange and they admitted to a “minor” error in their 2016 paper
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2016/01/08/run-away-the-anthropocene-has-arrived/
While still unsupported by the Marcott reconstruction, a rate of temperature change unprecedented in 1,400 years does not justify geological separation of an Anthropocene from the Holocene.
Especially since there’s not a scrap of empirical evidence that the said rate of temperature change has anything to do with CO2 levels of the minuscule human contribution thereto.
a rate of temperature change unprecedented in 1,400 years
========================
so what happened 1500 years ago?
Another problem is that we only have proxies for 1500 years ago. So they are comparing time filtered proxy data against modern thermometer readings.
Temperature changes back then could easily have been as fast as today, it’s just that the proxy data doesn’t show rapid changes.
We have had similar periods of warming in the past 300 years. Look at 1700. Luckily the Carbon Tax of 1740 stopped the warming otherwise the earth would have tipped over.
“earth would have tipped over.”
I’ve always wanted to live in the southern hemisphere.
Tipped as in “fall over” or tipped as in “is dead now”?
I object to the term Holocene. It is no different than the last several interglacials.
Holocene means “entirely recent” and it has been suggested a person living today would not be much surprised looking at Earth at the beginning of the Holocene versus now. I don’t know what “several” means but you likely would encounter significant differences in each of those.
The Howlocene?
Even the Holocene is going to be a brief epoch, since it’s just another interglacial.
Epochs last millions or tens of millions of years, not thousands or tens of thousands. The epochs of our present Cenozoic Era before the Holocene lasted roughly ten, 22, eleven, 18, three and 2.6 million years.
The Late Epoch of the Cretaceous Period (last of the Mesozoic Era) endured about 35 million years, and its Early Epoch around 45 million years.
This proposal is absurd. If the activists really want an “Anthropocene”, then they already have one in the Holocene. Humans did cause extinctions early in this epoch.
I am not sure where the “golden spike” stratiographically defining the Pleistocene lies, but it is best defined by marine isotopic stage. If and when it happens during human tenure on the planet that our layer of plastic corresponds to an exit from the glacial fibrillations of the Pleistocene, we will have earned our epoch.
How much more circular and anti-intellectual can the climate extremists get in their reasoning and still be taken seriously? The only thing significantly “man made” about climate is that the obsession over climate is that it is an artifact of obsessed and cynical people. The “climate crisis” exists in the minds of the the believers. Sort of like UFO belief.
“hunter March 24, 2017 at 4:20 am
Sort of like UFO belief.”
No way! That was a great TV show in the 70’s. I even had a working model of the “Interceptor”!
I’d say more like the belief in Purgatory and Limbo. At least UFO’s have a chance…”human induced climate catastrophe,” on the other hand, is nothing more than “hypothetical BS,” and has NO chance of ever being anything more than that.
I’m not sure. Purgatory and Limbo will never be seen by a living human being, nor will the effects of AGW, as the date for the start is ever further in the future. Pretty similar there.
As long as these folks get zero public money and not ever considered a charity for tax deduction purposes, they can propose all the flat earth constructs they can imagine – and imagination is what it is.
Hmmmm… The Anthropocene. Seems the team is excited by having caused a ripple in the pond. Actually they may have a good point. Humans do change the landscape and one day that landscape will become a stratographic layer.
What would it contain? Perhaps sparrow carcasses from China’s attempt to increase grain harvests during the Great Leap Forward. Those might be found among lumps of pot metal from peoples smelters and dunce caps from the heads of insufficiently Red intellectuals. Maybe even a soiled copy of the little red book.
As a Freshman I took a required course in critical thinking. It was taught by a Marxist professor utilizing many works by Noam Chomsky. This is like that.
I’ve spoken to people about it – and except for direct ruins (aka archaeology) the only widespead effect that will be seen is due to increased runoffs from some agricultural practices. In total it will be almost insignificant geologically and probably dwarfed by a single Tsunami.
Quoting article:
“DUH”, therein the above, …….. one can easily see the “the reason for their madness”.
Iffen that group of 27 co-authors can get their “Anthropocene” officially declared a separate and distinct Geologic Epic ….. then they truly believe they will be 1st in line to receive tens-of-million$-of-dollars in “FREE” government Grant monies made available to them for studying and researching that dastardly human caused problem.
HA, tis “CAGW redux” ….. fer shur.
These people have zero sense of geological timescales.
Yes, once again human beings show their over-inflated sense of self-importance.
Bingo, we have a winner.
The “Adjustocene” sounds far more relevant to describe the current state of the world.
Agreed. The cynical “adjust the past to advance the agenda” has a much larger effect on the “climate record” than any actual change in climate during the period “on record.”
The academicene is the period after the PC transition – marked by a build up of carbon based material called: “useless politically contrived papers”.
To put all this in context, I asked an archaeological group why artefacts sink into the ground. They said: “it’s well known it’s caused by earthworms”. I said “we’ve got NewZealand flat worms and so no earthworms.
After that they were silent. This is the nature of academia. They are clueless about some of the simplest things in nature. But they are ever so quick to come up with some bizarre explanation or worse, to fabricate explanations for clearly political purposes.
Which reminds me – I have some iron balls to bury. (No – not seriously, the iron balls are just going to sit on the ground, the pingpong balls are being buried).
“‘Irreversible’ changes to the Earth provide striking evidence of new epoch, University of Leicester experts suggest”
Expert: As in knows all the mystical incantations by rote.
Irreversible?
Have you ever seen a parking lot after it’s been abandoned for just a couple of years?
True. About 15-20 years ago, someone dumped a pile of concrete about the size of a two story house in the field at the end of our street. Today it is less than half the original size and has been colonized by various botanical specimens. Concrete is being reduced to a form of sand. And fairly quickly at that.
To “create” a new epoch requires much more than the emotional cry of anthropogenic global warming. It is essential that a full-scale, international field geological investigation, complemented by whatever may be needed in the laboratory, be undertaken and subjected to OBJECTIVE peer review. If, as a result, there are distinct characteristics represented by some temporal geological interval, recognized in different parts of the world, it would then seem that such an endeavor might actually allow for recognition,characterization and naming of a new epoch. Nothing less!
perhaps the BSopocene would be a better name …
I vote for the Adjustocene + 10. In a few hundred thousand years if anyone cares to look for it, most of the stratigraphy associated with it will consist of a thin layer with – so we keep being told – a staggeringly disproportionate carbon content. Evidently evidence of a vast volume of hot air laid down over about 40 years.
I think, as George Carlin put it, the only thing we’ll leave behind is “a little Styrofoam.”
The late George Carlin “Saving the Planet”
We’re so self important….. And the greatest arrogance of all: “Save the Planet.”
{Foul language warning}
(youtube)
I do believe we are missing out on the most appropriate name for this present era – Hubriscene.
I was looking to see if anyone else thought of Hubrisocene, splendid!
Deniercene. Its in our nature.
More like gulliboscene Tony – to allocate 15 minutes of fame to those sincerely believing mankind influences the outside air temperature permanently.