Welcome to the Anthropocene

Framing the Anthropocene

Well, “welcome” may not be the most suitable word to describe the Anthropocene, the era that humanity has shaped. The Anthropocene can be considered a collection of unfavorable news for both humans and our planet’s biosphere.

This topic is highly debated, as is the existence of this alleged geological period defined by thermo-industrial activities. Nonetheless, it’s hard to ignore the fact that we are living in a unique period of Earth’s history. The range of rapid and long-lasting changes humans have brought about in the Earth System is evident and increasingly documented.

Officially, the Anthropocene doesn’t exist. A formal proposal to add it to the geologic time scale was rejected in March 2024 (see below), though its authors continue to make the case. It is the International Commission on Stratigraphy (see Working Group on the ‘Anthropocene’) that determines the denomination and the calibration of different divisions and subdivisions of geological time, which date back to the formation of the Earth, 4.6 billion years ago.

Unofficially, the term is widely used in scientific literature and, more recently, in publications aimed at the general public.

You might wonder, what exactly is the Anthropocene?

First, let’s look at the etymology. The Ancient Greek [anthropos] means “human being,” while [kainos] means “new, current.” The Anthropocene can be best described as the new human-dominated period of Earth’s history.

The term was proposed in 2000 by Paul J. Crutzen, Nobel Prize in 1995 for his work on atmospheric chemistry and his research on stratospheric ozone depletion (the so-called “hole”), and by Eugene F. Stoermer in a publication (p. 17) of the former International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (now part of Future Earth). But the concept itself, the idea that human activity affects the Earth to the point where it can cross a new age, is not new and dates back to the late nineteenth century. Different terms were proposed over the decades, such as Anthropozoic (Stoppani, 1873), Noosphere (de Chardin, 1922; Vernadsky, 1936), Eremocene (Wilson), and Anthrocene (Revkin, 1992). It seems that the success of the term chosen by Crutzen and Stoermer is due to the luck of having been made at the appropriate time, when humankind became more than ever aware of the extent of its impact on global environment. It should be noted that Edward O. Wilson (who suggested Eremocene, “the age of loneliness”) popularized the terms “biodiversity” and “biophilia.”

Technically, the Anthropocene would be the most recent epoch of the Quaternary, succeeding the Holocene. The Quaternary is a period of the Earth’s history characterized by numerous and cyclical glaciations, starting 2,588,000 years ago (2.588 Ma). It is formally divided into two epochs, the Pleistocene and the Holocene; the Anthropocene would be the third.

The Pleistocene (2.588 Ma to 11.7 Ka) was a tumultuous era, during which more than eleven major glaciations occurred. Furthermore, the Pleistocene is also the time of early humans, the exit of our ancestors from Africa, the invention of the first tools, the evolution of bipedalism, the invention of graphic arts, cultural and linguistic refinements, and the dominance of Homo sapiens on the other hominids.

The Holocene (11.7 ka until now) is a time comparatively smoother in terms of climate variability. At the end of the last Ice Age, 12,000 years ago, a more stable climate regime settled on Earth. The ice gave way to temperate climates, and already, humans were present on all continents. It took a few thousand years for agriculture (domestication of land by humans for food mainly) to take off in the Fertile Crescent and elsewhere in Africa, China, New Guinea and South America. Thus went human progress, managing with success to feed ever more humans.

We are officially still in the Holocene. In fact, we are in the Phanerozoic Eon, Cenozoic era, Quaternary period and Holocene epoch. But now, the Earth’s system does not seem to behave the same way as, say, at the time of Hesiod, Dante or Cervantes. The Earth of the 21^st century is warming, urbanizing, being deforested and spoiled by novel entities. The comforting shell of the Holocene, which has fostered the birth of civilizations, is now punctured.

The scale of the change is hard to overstate. Humanity has used more energy since the 1950s than in all of the preceding 12 millennia of the Holocene, most of it by burning fossil fuels. Measured in geological time, though, the Anthropocene so far is a sliver: about 0.6% of the Holocene’s length.

Read more about the Anthropocene on the page of the Anthropocene Working Group from the Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy from the International Commission on Stratigraphy.

“A phase characterised by a regime shift in the behaviour of thermo-industrial societies, beginning in 1945, and leading to unprecedented disruptions in the Earth System across the entire Cenozoic era. These disruptions include climate change, ecosystem collapse, environmental contamination, resource exploitation, land cover change, and drastic alterations to the inhabited world. These shifts necessitate a substantial reorientation of our awareness and perspectives, demanding new approaches to living on Earth.”

— GLOBAÏA’s definition of the Anthropocene

Proposed Starting Dates

Scientists have proposed many starting dates for the Anthropocene, from the first farmers to the fallout of the atomic age. Select any marker to see the physical evidence, who proposed it, and the reference.

Two Dates, One Threshold

GLOBAÏA dates the Anthropocene from 1945. 1952 is the Anthropocene Working Group’s formal proposal and the first worldwide geological trace.

In 1945:

• 27 January. Auschwitz is liberated, as the Holocaust nears its end.
• 8 May and 2 September. The Second World War ends, first in Europe, then in the Pacific.
• 11 June. In the Franck Report, atomic scientists urge against a surprise atomic attack and warn of a nuclear arms race: an early voice of responsibility for what science can unleash.
• 26 June. The United Nations Charter is signed; it enters into force on 24 October.
• 30 June. John von Neumann's report on the EDVAC computer sets out the stored-program design that digital computers, and later artificial intelligence, run on.
• 16 July. The Trinity test opens the atomic age.
• 6 and 9 August. The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
• December. ENIAC, the first general-purpose electronic computer, runs its first calculations in Pennsylvania, after Bletchley Park's code-breaking Colossus (1944).
• 27 December. The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank are founded under the Bretton Woods agreements, the backbone of post-war globalization.
• From 1945. Post-war growth sparks the Great Acceleration.

Our Holocene and Corridor of Life interactives draw the boundary at 1952. Neither date denies earlier human influence; together they mark when a threshold may have been crossed.

Welcome to the Crawfordian

The Anthropocene Working Group chose Crawford Lake, Ontario, as the golden spike (formally, the Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point) for the proposed epoch, starting in 1952. Its yearly layers record more than seven centuries of human impact:

• Each year leaves a dark and a light layer, called a varve.
• Indigenous maize farming thickened them from the late thirteenth century.
• European colonizers' farming and logging thickened them again in the nineteenth.
• The plutonium "bomb pulse" begins its sharp rise in the 1952 layer.
• Fossil fuel burning in the 1950s shifts the algae: the Great Acceleration.

References: McCarthy et al. (2023). The varved succession of Crawford Lake, Milton, Ontario, Canada as a candidate Global boundary Stratotype Section and Point for the Anthropocene series. The Anthropocene Review, 10(1), 146–176. https://doi.org/10.1177/20530196221149281 McCarthy et al. (2025). High-resolution analysis of the varved succession at Crawford Lake across the base of the proposed Crawfordian stage and Anthropocene series. The Anthropocene Review, 12(2), 243–272. https://doi.org/10.1177/20530196251315454 Kuwae et al. (2024). Toward defining the Anthropocene onset using a rapid increase in anthropogenic fingerprints in global geological archives. PNAS, 121(41), e2313098121. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2313098121

Where Things Stand

1. 2000Paul Crutzen and Eugene Stoermer propose the term
2. 2009The Anthropocene Working Group is formed within the Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy
3. 2019The Working Group votes 29 of 34 for a mid-twentieth-century epoch
4. 2023Crawford Lake, Ontario, is chosen as the golden spike
5. 2024The Subcommission rejects the proposal, 12 to 4 with 2 abstentions
6. 2026Two Perspectives in Nature Reviews Earth & Environment renew the case for 1952

Epoch, Event, or Our Reading

The Anthropocene Epoch (AE)

The Anthropocene names the rapid, planet-wide impact of human industrial activity. With no formal status yet, we write “epoch” in lowercase, as its proponents do.

• An epoch. Many markers change abruptly and together worldwide in the mid-twentieth century: the Great Acceleration Event Array.
• Not the extended Anthropocene. Some scholars see an ongoing event reaching back tens of millennia. The Working Group calls this a different concept, one that hides the departure from the Holocene the planetary boundaries measure. Here, the Anthropocene means the epoch.

Formal definitions: Anthropocene Working Group.

The Anthropocene After the Vote

In March 2024 the proposal for a formal Anthropocene epoch was rejected.

• The Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy rejected it 12 to 4, with 2 abstentions (released 4 March 2024).
• The International Union of Geological Sciences upheld the result on 20 March 2024.
• The sticking point: is barely seven decades too brief for an epoch?
• Critics led by Philip Gibbard prefer a long, uneven geological event.
• The evidence itself, from fallout and microplastics to extinctions, is not in dispute.

The Case for 1952

In September 2026, two papers by Working Group members renewed the case.

• Twelve records, from the tropics to Antarctica, change abruptly and together in the mid-twentieth century.
• The primary marker: a sharp global rise in plutonium in 1952, from thermonuclear tests.
• Across 137 sites, human fingerprints surge together from 1952 ± 3.
• Carbon dioxide stands 51% and methane 157% above Holocene levels; warming has reached 1.5 °C above pre-industrial.
• Earlier human impacts stay in the Holocene: they did not overwhelm the Earth system.

References: Waters, C. N., Zalasiewicz, J., Turner, S. D. et al. (2026). Defining the Anthropocene using precise geological evidence. Nature Reviews Earth & Environment 7, 612. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43017-026-00817-8 Zalasiewicz, J., Thomas, J. A., Cohen, K. M. et al. (2026). Future directions for Anthropocene research and its applications. Nature Reviews Earth & Environment 7, 633. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43017-026-00820-z Kuwae, M., Yokoyama, Y., Tims, S. et al. (2024). Toward defining the Anthropocene onset using a rapid increase in anthropogenic fingerprints in global geological archives. PNAS 121(41), e2313098121. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2313098121

The Anthropocene Beyond Geology

A shared definition lets every field point at the same thing, the departure from the Holocene, and act on it.

• Law. The International Court of Justice (23 July 2025) holds states responsible for protecting the climate system.
• History. Historians ask how human systems came to overwhelm the Earth system.
• Education. It is on school curricula, with a UNESCO Chair devoted to it.
• Culture. Artists and museums give form to change too vast or gradual to see.
• Solutions. Global cooperation brought acid rain and the ozone hole under control once the evidence was clear. Sustainable development, the authors argue, now means helping the Earth system back toward the Holocene, the only state known to support societies like ours.

The Film

In June 2012, the United Nations Earth Summit Rio+20 was inaugurated with GLOBAÏA’s thought-provoking film, Welcome to the Anthropocene. This cinematic exploration delved into the contemporary state of our planet, elucidating the profound impact of human activities on Earth’s ecosystems.

The Rio+20 conference, which marked the largest gathering in the history of the United Nations, brought together world leaders, policymakers, and representatives from diverse sectors to address pressing global environmental challenges, foster sustainable development, and shape a collective vision for a more balanced, harmonious coexistence with nature.

Watch on UN Media

Critical reception. The film also drew critics. The art historian T. J. Demos made it the opening case of Against the Anthropocene: Visual Culture and Environment Today (Sternberg Press, 2017), whose cover is a still from it: he asked whose “we” its narration speaks for. Bruno Latour, in turn, warned against the zoom effect of global images. We reflect on these questions in On Seeing the Planet.

Stills from Welcome to the Anthropocene

To help communicate the concept of the Anthropocene, we, along with our international partners, launched Anthropocene.info in 2012 during the Planet Under Pressure conference. The site is no longer online, as of 2024.

The Anthropocene Equation

The Anthropocene equation is a mathematical expression developed by Will Steffen and Owen Gaffney to describe the impact of human activity on Earth’s climate system. The equation is derived by comparing the current rate of change in Earth’s temperature to the natural rates observed throughout Earth’s geological history.

Reference: https://doi.org/10.1177/2053019616688022 https://futureearth.org/2017/02/10/the-mathematics-of-the-anthropocene/

Read the paper

Anthropocene Mirrors

Shades of a World of Frankensteinian Proportions

In 1815, the eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia unleashed a catastrophic natural event that would reverberate throughout the world, instigating a chain reaction connecting the realms of literature, industry, and the environment. The Tambora eruption led to the “Year Without a Summer” in 1816, which not only influenced the creation of Mary Shelley’s iconic novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus but also coincided with the burgeoning Industrial Revolution.

Amidst the gloomy weather and incessant rain brought about by the Tambora eruption, Shelley conceived her masterpiece, which explores the ethical and moral implications of scientific progress, serving as a prescient metaphor for the dawning age of human-induced environmental transformation. Frankenstein’s eponymous protagonist, in his hubris and desire for mastery over nature, ultimately engenders a monstrous creation with unintended and disastrous consequences.

Coincidentally, the Tambora eruption occurred at the cusp of the Industrial Revolution, a period marked by rapid technological innovations, urbanisation, and exponential economic growth. This unprecedented shift in the human-environment dynamic laid the foundation for the Anthropocene, as our impact on the planet became increasingly palpable and pervasive.

As the world reeled from the eruption’s climatic consequences, Mary Shelley’s cautionary tale emerged as a reflection of our collective anxiety and fascination with the transformative power of science and technology. Simultaneously, the Industrial Revolution propelled humanity into a new epoch marked by our indelible influence on Earth’s systems. This confluence of events serves as a stark reminder of the interconnected nature of our actions on “Earth, the only home we’ve ever known”, as expressed by Carl Sagan.

Here, we present various facets of the Anthropocene, reflecting its cultural reverberations and historical echoes as they emerge from renowned cautionary tales and notable figures.

Cultural Reverberations

The Copernican Reckoning

The Anthropocene heralds a moment analogous to Copernicus’s astronomical revolution, which displaced Earth from the center of the cosmos. This contemporary shift confronts us with the reality that humanity is not a mere bystander but a formidable agent shaping the planet’s geological, climatic, and ecological processes. This revelation necessitates a reevaluation of our anthropocentric worldview, calling for a heightened sense of responsibility and stewardship towards Earth’s resources.

The Archimedean Enlightenment

As the Anthropocene unveils the intricate interdependencies between human actions and Earth’s systems, it offers no Archimedean point: it removes the last place one could stand outside the system. Hannah Arendt saw in the search for such a point the earth alienation of modern science; the Anthropocene returns every observer to the ground. This return impels scholars, policymakers, and the public alike to reconsider the unintentional, cumulative repercussions of human activities on the planet. By transcending traditional disciplinary confines, the Anthropocene facilitates a holistic analysis of the intricate interplay between societal, economic, and ecological forces, fostering interdisciplinary cooperation in addressing the critical global challenges arising from human influence.

The Promethean Paradox

The Anthropocene epitomizes humanity’s ceaseless quest for dominion over nature, embodying the audacity that once defied divine authority. Our achievements, while awe-inspiring, reverberate with cautionary undertones. In this monumental Promethean leap, we confront a paradox: our capacity for creation is matched by our potential for destruction. As custodians of this novel epoch, we must exercise our power with sagacity and foresight that even Prometheus would admire.

The Faustian Exchange

The Anthropocene exemplifies a Faustian bargain, in which industrial societies, propelled by the desire for progress and technological advancement, have inadvertently destabilized the planet’s ecological equilibrium. Like Faust, who bartered his soul for knowledge and might, humanity has exchanged the long-term well-being of Earth for fleeting benefits. Consequently, we must confront the outcomes of our actions and diligently strive to redress the imbalance we have wrought.

The Gaian Perspective

Bruno Latour posits that the Anthropocene transcends mere geological nomenclature, embodying a political and cultural moment. He advocates for a reconceptualization of Earth as an active contributor to human history, rather than a passive backdrop. In this Gaian lens, human agency coexists with a broader nexus of interactions involving other life forms and the physical environment. This viewpoint underscores the necessity to examine the social and cultural dimensions of environmental concerns and encourages interdisciplinary collaboration to address them.

In the Footsteps of Polyphemus

Polyphemus, the one-eyed Cyclops from Homer’s Odyssey, derives his name from the Greek words for “many” or “much” and “speech” or “reputation.” In this context, he symbolizes the diverse discourse surrounding the Anthropocene. Numerous alternative appellations have been proposed to encapsulate the epoch’s transformative essence, among them: Anthropopause, Anthropozoic, Homogenocene, Technocene, Capitalocene, Chthulucene, Plastocene, Synthecene, Pyrocene, Eremozoic, Homogenozoic, Necrocene, Thanatocene, Sustainocene, Consumocene, Entropocene, Urbanocene, Anthrobscene, Androcene, Manthropocene… We encourage further exploration of these varied perspectives.