The New World of the Anthropocene

Zalasiewicz, Jan; Williams, Mark; Steffen, Will; Crutzen, Paul J.

doi:10.1021/es903118j

Cited by 623 publications

(306 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…In 2002, the Nobel Prize-winning atmospheric chemist Paul Crutzen [5] resurrected the concept of the Anthropocene to denote the current interval of time on Earth in which many key processes are dominated by human influence. The word quickly entered the scientific literature as a vivid expression of the degree of environmental change on Earth caused by humans, and is currently under discussion as a potential formal unit of the geological time scale [6,7].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Anthropocene: a new epoch of geological time?

Zalasiewicz

Williams

Haywood

et al. 2011

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A.

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448

206

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Anthropogenic changes to the Earth’s climate, land, oceans and biosphere are now so great and so rapid that the concept of a new geological epoch defined by the action of humans, the Anthropocene, is widely and seriously debated. Questions of the scale, magnitude and significance of this environmental change, particularly in the context of the Earth’s geological history, provide the basis for this Theme Issue. The Anthropocene, on current evidence, seems to show global change consistent with the suggestion that an epoch-scale boundary has been crossed within the last two centuries.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Anthropocene: a new epoch of geological time?

Zalasiewicz

Williams

Haywood

et al. 2011

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A.

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448

206

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“…Humans sculpt and transform the landscape through the physical modification of the shape and properties of the ground surface and subsurface. As such, humans are geological and geomorphological agents and the dominant factor in landscape evolution in the Anthropocene [2,3]. The magnitude of impact (quantity and spatial extent) of material moved and its rate correlates with increasing population.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Humans as major geological and geomorphological agents in the Anthropocene: the significance of artificial ground in Great Britain

Price

Ford

Cooper

et al. 2011

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A.

179

145

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Since the first prehistoric people started to dig for stone to make implements, rather than pick up loose material, humans have modified the landscape through excavation of rock and soil, generation of waste and creation of artificial ground. In Great Britain over the past 200 years, people have excavated, moved and built up the equivalent of at least six times the volume of Ben Nevis. It is estimated that the worldwide deliberate annual shift of sediment by human activity is 57 000 Mt (million tonnes) and exceeds that of transport by rivers to the oceans (22 000 Mt) almost by a factor of three. Humans sculpt and transform the landscape through the physical modification of the shape and properties of the ground. As such, humans are geological and geomorphological agents and the dominant factor in landscape evolution through settlement and widespread industrialization and urbanization. The most significant impact of this has been since the onset of the Industrial Revolution in the eighteenth century, coincident with increased release of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. The anthropogenic sedimentological record, therefore, provides a marker on which to characterize the Anthropocene.

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“…(1). The onset of this period is debated; it is assigned within a wide time range that extends from the beginning of the Holocene (∼11 kyBP) to the advent of the nuclear era (A.D. 1945) (2), but is most commonly recognized as the beginning of the Industrial Revolution (1780s to 1830s) (3).…”

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Widespread pollution of the South American atmosphere predates the industrial revolution by 240 y

Uglietti

Gabrielli

Cooke

et al. 2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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In the Southern Hemisphere, evidence for preindustrial atmospheric pollution is restricted to a few geological archives of low temporal resolution that record trace element deposition originating from past mining and metallurgical operations in South America. Therefore, the timing and the spatial impact of these activities on the past atmosphere remain poorly constrained. Here we present an annually resolved ice core record (A.D. 793–1989) from the high-altitude drilling site of Quelccaya (Peru) that archives preindustrial and industrial variations in trace elements. During the precolonial period (i.e., pre-A.D. 1532), the deposition of trace elements was mainly dominated by the fallout of aeolian dust and of ash from occasional volcanic eruptions, indicating that metallurgic production during the Inca Empire (A.D. 1438−1532) had a negligible impact on the South American atmosphere. In contrast, a widespread anthropogenic signal is evident after around A.D. 1540, which corresponds with the beginning of colonial mining and metallurgy in Peru and Bolivia, ∼240 y before the Industrial Revolution. This shift was due to a major technological transition for silver extraction in South America (A.D. 1572), from lead-based smelting to mercury amalgamation, which precipitated a massive increase in mining activities. However, deposition of toxic trace metals during the Colonial era was still several factors lower than 20th century pollution that was unprecedented over the entirety of human history.

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The New World of the Anthropocene

Abstract: The Anthropocene, following the lost world of the Holocene, holds challenges for both science and society.

Cited by 623 publications

References 26 publications

The Anthropocene: a new epoch of geological time?

The Anthropocene: a new epoch of geological time?

Humans as major geological and geomorphological agents in the Anthropocene: the significance of artificial ground in Great Britain

Widespread pollution of the South American atmosphere predates the industrial revolution by 240 y

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