When did the Anthropocene begin?

Deforestation in the state of Rondônia in western Brazil. Image: NASA, 30 July 2000The Anthropocene is the proposed name for a new geological epoch: one defining the timeframe in which humankind has exerted such power over the Earth that we alter its geology. But when did the Anthropocene begin?

Some argue the Anthropocene started a couple of centuries ago:

"It's disconcerting to learn that many stratigraphers have come to believe that we are such an event—that human beings have so altered the planet in just the past century or two that we've ushered in a new epoch: the Anthropocene. The record of our impact leaving “may look as sudden and profound as that of an asteroid.”

Deforestation in the state of Rondônia in western Brazil. Image: NASA, 2 August 2010From a "Paleo" perspective, the impact of the agricultural revolution around 10,000 years cannot be ignored. Even the Fertile Crescent was turned into a dessert by human activity thousands of years ago. As the images of an area of Brazil rainforest in 2000 and 2010 show, our frenetic activity continues to destroy forest for agriculture and pasture land. A "Paleo" perspective also recognizes the role of our ancestors in the megafauna extinctions of the late Paleolithic. As David Biello writes in Scientific American:

"Some argue that humans began changing the global environment about 50,000 years back, in the Pleistocene epoch, helping along if not outright causing the mass extinctions of megafauna, from mammoths to giant kangaroos, on most continents. Others date it to the emergence of agriculture some 7,000 years ago. The most definitive cases to be made coincide with the start of the industrial revolution and the dawn of the atomic age."

The recent paper "Dating the Anthropocene" published in Elementa proposes a broad scientific study to uncover the global history of the Anthropocene, the period of "human transformation of the terrestrial biosphere." It would require "an entirely revamped scientific effort in archaeology, ecology and paleontology, among other disciplines, at an unprecedented planetary scale." According to lead author Erle C. Ellis:

"This is great scientific work that can be done and needs to be done. It will help us define the role of humans in shaping the Anthropocene and will mark a scientific triumph for humanity: a full empirical account of our rise to global stewardship of the biosphere."

The greater challenge for humankind will be transitioning from dominance to stewardship.

Source

How Long Have Humans Dominated the Planet?

Related Posts

• Welcome to the Anthropocene: Humankind's layer on the Earth
• The Stockholm Memorandum and the strain of the Anthropocene
• The Anthropocene: The beauty & the beast
• Did the Roman Empire & the Han Dynasty begin the Anthropocene?

Did the Roman Empire & the Han Dynasty begin the Anthropocene?

Roman sarcophagus with battle scene, Dallas Museum of Art. Source: WikimediaThe Anthropocene, a newly defined "informal" geological era, marks the timeframe in which humankind’s planetary impact has been so intense we alter Earth’s geology. But when did Anthropocene begin?

While some favor the Industrial Revolution as the start of the Anthropocene, I side with those arguing for an onset 8,000 to 10,000 years ago with the advent of agriculture. Now there is new evidence that greenhouse gasses - particularly the potent greenhouse gas methane - took a jump during the Roman empire and Han Dynasty in China which pushes the onset of the Anthropocene to at least 2,000 years ago.

In a study published October 4, 2012 of Nature, C. J. Sapart and colleagues looked at the “Natural and anthropogenic variations in methane sources during the past two millennia.” According to Richard Ingham of AFP, the research found “humans were big emitters of greenhouse gases long before the Industrial Revolution.”

For 1,800 years before industrialisation took off in the 19th century, emissions of methane rose in line with expanding populations, human conquest and agricultural techniques.

Big early increases coincided with the Chinese Han Dynasty (206 BC-220 AD) and the Roman empire (27 BC to the last western emperor in 476 AD), which along with an advanced Indian civilisation at the time chopped down millions of trees to heat homes and power their metal-working industries, often to provide weapons.

Humankind added approximately 28 billion tonnes of methane to the atmosphere per year between 100 BC and 1600 AD through fires, deforestation, and rice paddies. And, according to the study:

Based on archaeological metal production estimates, we calculate that the charcoal used for metal production at the peak of the Roman empire alone could have produced 0.65 teragrams (650 million tonnes) per year of methane. 

More on the Anthropocene:

• Welcome to the Anthropocene: Humankind's layer on the Earth
• The Stockholm Memorandum and the strain of the Anthropocene
• The Anthropocene: The beauty & the beast
• The Great Acceleration
• First "State of the Planet Declaration" 

The Anthropocene: The beauty & the beast

Humankind is now the most powerful force on the planet. Although when it began is debated , many geologists believe we are in a new geological epoch: the Anthropocene – the age of humankind.

The recent Planet Under Pressure conference commisioned a video of the Anthropocene over the past 250 years. The video comes in two versions. The version above, described as "mesmerizing," can be viewed as illustrating some of the beauty of our time.

However, the narrated version below shows the beast. Keep in mind, there are solutions.

Related Posts

• Welcome to the Anthropocene: Humankind's layer on the Earth
• The Stockholm Memorandum and the strain of the Anthropocene
• The Great Acceleration
• First "State of the Planet Declaration"

The Great Acceleration

The last 50 years have without doubt seen the most rapid transformation of the human relationship with the natural world in the history of humankind.

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First "State of the Planet Declaration"

Research now demonstrates that the continued functioning of the Earth system as it has supported the well-being of human civilization in recent centuries is at risk. Without urgent action, we could face threats to water, food, biodiversity and other critical resources: these threats risk intensifying economic, ecological and social crises, creating the potential for a humanitarian emergency on a global scale.

Thus begins the first State of the Planet Declaration prepared by the Planet Under Pressure 2012 conference just concluded in London. The report outlines the “key messages emerging from the proceedings” and includes the important framework of planetary boundaries, those Earth systems, such as biodiversity, climate change, and ocean acidification. The report continues:

In one lifetime our increasingly interconnected and interdependent economic, social, cultural and political systems have come to place pressures on the environment that may cause fundamental changes in the Earth system and move us beyond safe natural boundaries. But the same interconnectedness provides the potential for solutions: new ideas can form and spread quickly, creating the momentum for the major transformation required for a truly sustainable planet. (emphasis added)

The “distant ideal of sustainable development” is no longer a guiding vision. The vision is much more immediate:

Global sustainability must become a foundation of society. It can and must be part of the bedrock of nation states and the fabric of societies.

Denial of climate change is in retreat. Unrelated to the conference, General Motors this week announced it will no longer fund the Heartland Institute, “a Chicago-based nonprofit well-known for attacking the science behind global warming and climate change.”

Also, meteorologist Shawn Otto writes:

No, you’re not imagining it: we’ve clicked into a new and almost foreign weather pattern. To complicate matters, I’m in a small, frustrated and endangered minority: a Republican deeply concerned about the environmental sacrifices some are asking us to make to keep our economy powered-up, long-term. It’s ironic. The root of the word conservative is “conserve.”

Those denying climate change for economic or political reasons are becoming marginalized. The movement for action is slowly building. "Will it occur soon enough?" is the question of our era.

Download PDF of the Declaration 

The Stockholm Memorandum and the strain of the Anthropocene

The Feb. 27^th entry on PaleoTerran presented the debate on whether we have entered a new epoch, the Anthropocene. This week, The Stockholm Memorandum, produced by the 3rd Nobel Laureate Symposium on Global Sustainability held Stockholm, Sweden appears to make it official: 

Humans are now the most significant driver of global change, propelling the planet into a new geological epoch, the Anthropocene. 

Whether this group, or the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS), has the authority to name a new epoch is unclear. (The ICS site has not been updated for sometime.)  Nevertheless, the name of the epoch is not the issue; the subject of Memorandum is the strain humankind is placing on the planet. 

Unsustainable patterns of production, consumption, and population growth are challenging the resilience of the planet to support human activity. ...Evidence is growing that human pressures are starting to overwhelm the Earth’s buffering capacity.

In a series of pregnant statements, eight priorities are outlined:

1. Reaching a more equitable world
2. Managing the climate - energy challenge
3. Creating an efficiency revolution
4. Ensuring affordable food for all
5. Moving beyond green growth
6. Reducing human pressures
7. Strengthening Earth System Governance
8. Enacting a new contract between science and society 

While the challenge is clear and daunting, the document also serves as a roadmap for future entrepreneurs.

To learn more, download The Stockholm Memorandum.  

Related Post:
Welcome to the Anthropocene: Humankind's layer on Earth

Welcome to the Anthropocene: Humankind's layer on the Earth

TokyoWelcome to the Anthropocene. Man’s impact on the planet is now believed to be so great geologist are considering creating a new geological epoch. What factors are driving such a substantial impact on the planet? What will cause the geological record to mark our presence? If we are in the Anthropocene, when did it begin?

According to Elizabeth Kolbert writing in the March issue of National Geographic, Paul Crutzen coined the term “anthropocene” while attending a scientific conference. When the chairman kept using the term Holocene to describe the current epoch, Crutzen exclaimed “'Let's stop it, we are no longer in the Holocene. We are in the Anthropocene.' Well, it was quiet in the room for a while." That quiet has since led to a lot of thinking and scientists now considering the possibility that a new geological epoch has begun.

Stratigraphers are geologists that study the Earth's strata, the layers you can see at a roadside cut. Kolbert observes:

Click to read more ...