Humans are able to transform Earth's dynamics in a very short time.
Examples include loss of species, waste generation, pollution, deforestation, and changes in the chemical composition of the oceans and atmosphere. Indeed, many of them are irreversible.
These shifts were the basis for the belief that we are no longer living in the Holocene epoch, but rather that we have entered a new geological epoch: the Anthropocene, which is defined as the time when various Earth processes were changed by human activity.
This term was proposed by Paul Crutzen and Eugene Stoermer in 2000. They have since suggested that the beginning of this new geological era could be at the end of the 18th century, when the global impacts of human activity began to become more apparent.
Another hypothesis about the beginning of this new era is the Neolithic Revolution, when agriculture was a crucial factor in the emission of greenhouse gases.
It was also believed that this beginning could have been at the end of the sixteenth century, with the colonization of America. This is because millions of people died, there were major changes in demographics, the land was not cultivated, and plant growth absorbed more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. This left a geological trace in 1610.
The Anthropocene Working Group, responsible for analyzing geological evidence to determine whether we are living in a new era, proposes that it began in the mid-20th century, with great acceleration (industrial boom, demographic growth, increased use of fossil fuels and the use of plutonium in nuclear testing).
Evidence analysis
To be considered a new geological phase, there must be scientific evidence proving that the changes occurred all over the planet at the same time.
The International Commission on Stratigraphy (CIE), responsible for setting geological time scales, has established the Anthropocene Working Group – made up of scientists from around the world – to analyze sediments and rocks containing fossil records of plants and animals that indicate the state of the state. It was like every time.
“As geologists, we need a record in which evidence of everything that happened during an era, period, or epoch is preserved in rocks in some way,” explains Dr. Priyadarsi Roy, from the UNAM Geology Institute.
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