Dating the Dawn of the Anthropocene

Abstract

Abstract This article provides indepth insight into the debate (based on stratigraphic findings) as to the exact date that Earth entered the Anthropocene Epoch. Generally, in Human and Social Sciences, the date of the boundary is paid less attention than the systemic shifts resulting from it. (There have been a number of publications on our surpassing of the planet’s limits, and passing of the point of no return.) However, it is important to understand this debate based on stratigraphic data, because sooner or later, the International Union of Geological Sciences will amend the geological timescale to include the Anthropocene – even if, to date, the process of formal definition has been interrupted by the negative vote on 5 March 2024 of the Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy (SQS) of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) after a positive vote in 2023 by the Anthropocene Working Group (AWG) proposing to date the onset of the Anthropocene in 1950 (with a “golden nail” in the Crawford lake beds). In future, almost all the world’s students will learn the date when we entered it. This article explores each of the possible dates when stratigraphic data suggest the Anthropocene may have started. This should hand tomorrow’s teachers the keys to understand what may sometimes seem an obscure expert debate.