News Alert by Kip Hansen — 20 March 2024
Earlier this month we heard that the International Union of Geological Sciences commission on the Anthropocene voted not to declare that the Earth had entered a new epoch of geological time: neither now or in 1950.
The reporting at that time included that the chair and the vice-chair of the commission both objected to the vote. “Even so, it was unclear Tuesday morning [March 5th] whether the results stood as a conclusive rejection or whether they might still be challenged or appealed. In an email to The Times, the committee’s chair, Jan A. Zalasiewicz, said there were “some procedural issues to consider” but declined to discuss them further. Dr. Zalasiewicz, a geologist at the University of Leicester, has expressed support for canonizing the Anthropocene.”
The NY Times has an update on the issue:
“March 20, 2024Updated 11:22 a.m. ET
The highest governing body in geology has upheld a contested vote by scientists against adding the Anthropocene, or human age, to the official timeline of Earth’s history.
The vote, which a committee of around two dozen scholars held in February, brought an end to nearly 15 years of debate about whether to declare that our species had transformed the natural world so thoroughly since the 1950s as to have sent the planet into a new epoch of geologic time.”
Despite the continued objections of Dr. Zalasiewicz and his vice-chair, Martin J. Head:
“…the committee’s parent body, the International Union of Geological Sciences, has decided the results will stand, the union’s executive committee said in a statement on Wednesday.
That means it’s official. Our planet, at least for the time being, is still in the Holocene epoch, which began 11,700 years ago with the most recent melting of the ice sheets.”
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Author’s Comment:
And, hopefully, that is the end of that! At least “officially”.
Activists and Advocates-of-all-stripes will continue to use the term to forward their anti-human stances and to blame all “bad things” on humans and human influences.
Kudos to the geologists!
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They lost me at “ highest governing body in geology.” Governance of science seems an oxymoron, as does voting about language of mythology and propaganda. .
The process of managing the geologic time scale is essential for scientific communication. Changing the time scale requires >60% majority votes of the subcommission and the International Commission on Stratigraphy and then has to be approved by the International Union of Geological Sciences Executive Committee…
https://rock.geosociety.org/net/gsatoday/archive/26/3/article/i1052-5173-26-3-4.htm
The Anthropocene was overwhelmingly voted down by the Subcomission on Quaternary Stratigraphy…
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-00675-8
Despite losing by a 12-4 margin in the SQS, the AWG challenged the vote and the IUGS told them to pound sand.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-00868-1#:~:text=Governing%20body%20upholds%20earlier%20decision%20by%20geoscientists%20amid%20drama.&text=A%20high%2Dprofile%20battle%20over,has%20come%20to%20an%20end.
The AWG spent 15 years putting out press releases, never produced a meaningful geological proposal, got voted down and threw a temper tantrum.
Note: AGW = Anthropocene Working Group, see DMs further comment below.
The AWG’s logo is even more priceless!
AGW: Anti-Global Warming. AWG: Amurrikin Whar Gage. So confusing.
But the pseudo-scientific propaganda language, a’ la Marx, Lippmann and Bernaise, has passed into common usage, regardless of “governance.”
There is no scientific evidence for an anthropocene, but the common perception is the opposite. Who exactly won, here?
The science of geology won. The final score was 12-4 and the AWG manager was ejected from the game because he was a score denier.
It always gets ugly when the managers argue with the ref!
It’s frightening that any geologist can think there’s an Anthropocene.
frightening as in, you know they are coming for your children, your cook stove, and your vegetable garden.
Andy ==> And your little propane camp stove and lantern too!
Your car, your meat, your light bulbs, your dishwasher, etc…
It’s the De-Growthers and Marxists wanting to control you and our society.
Mike, I know one former colleague who has an environmental focus and believes humans are affecting the planet, so he’s a supporter of the Anthropocene, but I definitely am not.
We are locally causing warming of cities by the UHIE, and have modified many land areas with agriculture etc, but this is minuscule compared to the biosphere’s natural variability. AGW or CAGW is an unproven Furphy, so humans have not yet measurably affected global climate, even though we are attempting ineffectually to do so with the anti-scientific, useless and morally corrupt UN Net Zero policies.
So, I consider the A concept as an ideological hangover without merit from the ecological-sustainability alarmist mob such as Suzuki and Flannery.
When they first formed the Anthropocene Working Group, only about half of the members were geologists…
http://quaternary.stratigraphy.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Anthropocene-Working-Group-Newsletter-No1-2009.pdf
Back in 2016, I contacted them about their use of Marcott, 2013 as evidence of an Anthropocene epoch. From our discussion, it was pretty clear that they were either clueless about resolution, or being disingenuous.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2016/01/08/run-away-the-anthropocene-has-arrived/
Science is not a democracy, meritocracy, aristocracy, oligarchy, timocracy, board of directors, panel of experts, society of experts, etc. “It matters not how many try to prove me right, it only takes one to prove me wrong” Einstein.
Careful. Quoting Einstein will draw trolls that will claim you’re no Einstein.
I don’t think you have to be an Einstein to approve of his work, methods or statements of fact.
It doesn’t take a PhD ichthyologist to know when a fish is dead and stinking up everything.
Jimmy ==> What you say is true, yet many scientific fields need to establish a common terminology so it is clear what they are talking about.
Medicine long ago settled on the names of the major organs and bones of the human body, for instance. Wouldn’t do to have one doctor remove your kidney accidentally because of a terminology error.
Naming of animals and plants, naming of chemical compounds, SOMEONE(s) have to decide and have enough influence to standardize these things.
G’Day Kip,
“…to standardize these things.”
I seem to recall a Mars mission that failed due to a mix-up between feet and meters.
The science part is whatever it is at any point in time, constantly being updated and changed.
But geology is also a profession as well as a science (all states and many if not most nations have professional licensing for geologists that requires a knowledge of applicable practice standards), and most professions do adopt standards of practice, terminology, methods, etc. for the “practice” of their profession, not so much the science behind it. Standards are extremely useful, otherwise how do you know your engineer is designing safe facilities, or how do you know your physician is practicing according to the standards of medical science at that time? Or that your accountant is using generally accepted business practices that are compliant with tax law and securities law?
Standards are a good thing. Making standards become political exercises is a very bad thing.
Would it were that those who call themselves climatologists had standards.
Unfortunately, with today’s wokeness, even medical students can no longer find the correct restroom because they can’t tell the difference between a man and a woman. I recently saw handwritten signs taped to a wall at a medical school saying “WOMENS RESTROOMS” and “NONBINARY RESTROOMS.” I guess the men just have to hold it or wear nappies.
The issue of “Anthropocene” is the environmentalists attempt to move Geology from Science into Political Science. When the next glacial cycle of the Ice Age we live in, what will the environmentalists call it? the “Cold Reality Cene”? Go Nuclear!
“The issue of “Anthropocene” is the environmentalists attempt to move Geology from Science into Political Science.”
Exactly.
It’s a human-caused climate change propaganda device.
If anything, there should use “periods”.. much shorter time spans
As in Roman Warm Period
Medieval Warm Period..
now..
the Modern Slightly-Warm Period…. or the Modern Tepid Period.
Please stop being so logical!
Sorry… must be my upbringing and education ! 😉
Hey you stole that from me! But ok, in the interest of science, I release “Modern Tepid Period” into the public domain.
I came up with that during a comment yesterday or was it the day before?
Anyways, enjoy!
I have used both the descriptions above several times over the last few of years…
… you probably saw it in passing… and it stuck in your memory 😉
ps.. I think I actually prefer the first one… The Modern Slightly Warm Period.
Yes but can you still test it with your elbow!
There was a 2-hour special — re-run — NOVA program on PBS last night and tonight, about the history of the poles. The first 3/4ths was actually pretty good. However, the last quarter devolved into propaganda supporting the anthropogenic paradigm. The propaganda was not balanced and ignored the Law Dome C ice core data.
Like the ‘Nopethrocene’.
Well, there are already periods. And they’re not that short, they come between “era” and “epoch.”
True, the Modern Slightly Warm Period is only 100 or so years long… ***
… and may not last much longer if the Sun behaves as many solar scientists suggest it will.
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*** depends if you count the warm 1930s, 40s.
otherwise the Modern Slightly-Warm Period only started around 1980 or some time after that..
Where’s the consensus? <sarc>
Thanks, Kip. Great reporting.
Bill ==> These issues get buried if not brought forward…in six months, journalists will be saying “Geologists have named our current time the Anthropocene” — forgetting, conveniently, that they did the opposite!
If an era of humanity is added to the geological timeline, it should start 100,000 to 200,000 years ago when we first started congregating in caves and discovered how to create and use fire leading to anthropogenic CO2 in the atmosphere (trivial that it is).
And the use of fire altered the landscape and type of vegetation.
ie.. NOT a geological era. !
Only place humans may have altered geology is in mining.
I am confused. I was told that challenging a vote was anti democratic and just plain wrong. Did I miss something?
mkelly ==> Yes — sorry to give a serious answer to a comic comment — the freedom to challenge a vote is part of the strength of democracies. Only in autocracies is challenging a vote count considered treason — think Banana Republics, Venezuela, Russia.
Free elections require the right to challenge and re-count votes.
The power of a Republic is that people elect representatives to determine what to do on issues that are more complex than can be decided simply by majority consensus, presumably for the maximum benefit of all.
And the weakness is when those same representatives are bought by vested interests instead of making an objective decision based on the good of the majority of the people.
Geologists think differently about time than most people.
Science is not a Church.
(but climate alarmism is a religion).
@rocdoctom… for more insight to the way geologists think about time may I suggest read the late Sarah Andrews whitepaper “Spatial Thinking with a Difference: An Unorthodox Treatise on the Mind of the Geologist”.
Do you have a good link for the whitepaper? I came up empty-handed searching.
The geologists clearly know what to think of climate mania.
A million years from now, the only evidence of human existence on the planet will be a few anomalous stones. And that started over 5000 years ago.
Okay so what we need is the names of those pushing for a new epoch. We need to gather them together demand they show why a new epoch is warranted, present their evidence and show that their work is correct and support their conclusions.
If there is any new Era, it is probably called the Anthroboscene.
Anthrobscene? Anything with ‘throb’ in it should be considered suspect at the least and probably obscene.
Or bananas!
Ah so the political and celebrity elites don’t control the universe after all. It must come as a massive shock to them all. But then the universe will always embarrass the imbeciles who won’t abide by its laws.