Anthropocene dawn: Scientists say humans have brought on a new geologic epoch

The indelible imprint left by human beings on Earth has become so clear that it justifies naming a new geological epoch after mankind, experts said.

The dawn of the “Anthropocene” would signal the end of the Holocene epoch, considered to have begun 11,700 years ago at the end of the Ice Age. The new term, suggested in 2000, is based on the Greek word “anthropos”, meaning “man”.

“Human activity is leaving a pervasive and persistent signature on Earth,” said a report published on Thursday in the journal Science by an international team led by Colin Waters of the British Geological Survey.

“We are becoming a geological agent in ourselves,” Waters told Reuters.

The start date could be around the mid-20th century, the authors wrote.

They said the atomic age, starting with a bomb test in New Mexico in the United States on July 16, 1945, and the post-war leap in mining, industry, farming and use of manmade materials such as concrete or plastics all left geological traces.

Concrete, invented by the Romans, was now so ubiquitous that it would amount to 1kg for every square metre of the planet’s surface if spread out evenly, they said.