Geologists Officially Reject 'Anthropocene' Epoch

Scholars have decided against updating our planet's historical timeline — reasoning that the impact of human activity on Earth is insignificant compared to its 4.6 billion-year history.

The International Union of Geological Sciences has rejected the disputed designation of the current epoch of Earth's history as the Anthropocene or human age.

The decision was made by a vote by the global geology body's committee of some twenty-four academics in February.

That settled the 15-year-old dispute concerning whether human activity since the 1950s have changed Earth’s climate and other systems enough to warrant declaring a new era in its geological evolution.

But the committee’s chair Dr. Jan A. Zalasiewicz and vice-chair Dr. Martin J. Head demanded the vote be invalidated, claiming that not all evidence had been assessed.

They also alleged that that some members of the committee where ineligible to vote as they had passed their term limits.

However, the union’s executive committee confirmed the vote in a statement released on Wednesday.

The decision means the current epoch remains the Holocene, which began around 11,700 years ago.

“The scientific decision is clear, and the specialists do not see any value in adding a new epoch in the geological record,” John Ludden, International Union of Geological Sciences president, told the New York Times.

The Holocene era marks a period of swift expansion, development, and influence of humanity across the globe. It encompasses the entirety of human history, from the time of written records to technological advancements, the rise of civilizations, and the widespread shift towards urbanisation that we see today.

Dr. Head lamented the missed opportunity to formally acknowledge human impact on the planet since the mid-20th century — a concept central to the theory of of anthropogenic global warming (AGW) or man-made climate change.

But he said the proposed Anthropocene designation would continue to be used in scientific and social circles to describe humanity’s impact on Earth.

The Anthropocene era is a suggested geological epoch that dates from the start of human impact on Earth's landscape, water bodies and ecosystems.

The rejection of the Anthropocene for now reflects the caution of many geologists over the proposed age's infancy when compared to the planet's 4.6 billion-year age.

The results are “a sign that the system is not equipped to deal with looking at the present, nor with the rate of change currently occurring on our planet,” remarked Dr. Brad E. Rosenheim, chair of the Geological Society of America’s Geochronology Division##.