Results of binding vote past AWG

Released 21st May 2019

Following guidance from the Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy and the International Commission on Stratigraphy, the AWG have completed a binding vote to assert some of the key questions that were voted on and agreed at the IGC Cape Boondocks coming together in 2016. The details are as follows:

No. of potential voting members: 34        No. required to be quorate (60%): 21     No. of votes received: 33 (97% of voting membership)

Q1 .  Should the Anthropocene be treated as a formal chrono-stratigraphic unit of measurement defined by a GSSP?

29  voted in favour (88% of votes bandage); iv voted against; no abstentions

Q2 . Should the primary guide for the base of the Anthropocene be one of the stratigraphic signals effectually the mid-twentieth century of the Common Era?

29  voted in favour (88% of votes cast); 4 voted against; no abstentions

Both votes exceed the 60% supermajority of cast votes required to be agreed by the Anthropocene Working Group as the official stance of the group and will guide their subsequent analysis.

What is the Anthropocene? – current definition and status

  • The 'Anthropocene' is a term widely used since its coining by Paul Crutzen and Eugene Stoermer in 2000 to denote the present geological fourth dimension interval, in which many conditions and processes on Earth are profoundly altered by human being impact. This impact has intensified significantly since the onset of industrialization, taking us out of the Globe System country typical of the Holocene Epoch that post-dates the last glaciation.
  • The 'Anthropocene' has developed a range of meanings amidst vastly unlike scholarly communities. Hither we examine the Anthropocene equally a geological time (chronostratigraphic) unit and potential addition to the Geological Time Scale, consequent with Crutzen and Stoermer'due south original proposal. The Anthropocene Working Grouping (AWG) is charged with this task as a component trunk of the Subcommission on 4th Stratigraphy (SQS) which is itself a constituent torso of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS).
  • Phenomena associated with the Anthropocene include: an order-of-magnitude increment in erosion and sediment ship associated with urbanization and agriculture; marked and abrupt anthropogenic perturbations of the cycles of elements such as carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and diverse metals together with new chemical compounds; environmental changes generated by these perturbations, including global warming, sea-level rise, ocean acidification and spreading oceanic 'dead zones'; rapid changes in the biosphere both on land and in the sea, equally a upshot of habitat loss, predation, explosion of domestic brute populations and species invasions;  and the proliferation and global dispersion of many new 'minerals' and 'rocks' including physical, wing ash and plastics, and the myriad 'technofossils' produced from these and other materials.
  • Many of these changes will persist for millennia or longer, and are altering the trajectory of the Earth Organization, some with permanent effect. They are being reflected in a distinctive body of geological strata at present accumulating, with potential to be preserved into the far hereafter.
  • TheAnthropocene is not currently a formally defined geological unit within the Geological Time Scale; officially we notwithstanding live within the Meghalayan Age of the Holocene Epoch. A proposal to formalise theAnthropocene is being developed by theAWG. Based on preliminary recommendations fabricated by the AWG in 2016, this proposal is being adult on the post-obit basis:
    1. It is being considered at series/epoch level (and so its base of operations/offset would terminate the Holocene Series/Epoch besides every bit Meghalayan Phase/Age);
    2. It would be divers by the standard means for a unit of the Geological Fourth dimension Scale, via a Global boundary Stratotype Department and Point (GSSP), colloquially known as a 'golden fasten';
    3. Its beginning would be optimally placed in the mid-xxth century, coinciding with the array of geological proxy signals preserved within recently accumulated strata and resulting from the 'Great Acceleration' of population growth, industrialization and globalization;
    4. The sharpest and most globally synchronous of these signals, that may grade a primary mark, is made by the bogus radionuclides spread worldwide by the thermonuclear bomb tests from the early 1950s.

    Analyses of potential 'aureate spike' locations are underway. The resultant proposal, when fabricated, would need supermajority (>60%) understanding by the AWG and its parent bodies (successively the SQS and ICS) and ratification by the Executive Committee of the International Union of Geological Sciences. The success of whatsoever such proposal is not guaranteed.

  • Broadly, to be accepted as a formal geological fourth dimension term the Anthropocene needs to exist (a) scientifically justified, i.due east. the 'geological signal' currently being produced in strata now forming must be significantly large, clear and distinctive; sufficient evidence has now been gathered to demonstrate this phenomenon (b) useful as a formal term to the scientific community. In terms of (b), the currently breezy term 'Anthropocene' has already proven highly useful to the global change and Earth System science research communities and thus will continue to be used. Its value as a formal geological fourth dimension term to other communities continues to be discussed.
  • The Anthropocene has emerged as a popular scientific term used by scientists, the scientifically engaged public and the media to designate the period of Earth's history during which humans accept a decisive influence on the state, dynamics and time to come of the World Arrangement. It is widely agreed that the Globe is currently in such a state. The term has also been used in a not-chronostratigraphic context to be an informal term to denote a broader interpretation of anthropogenic impact on the planet that is markedly diachronous, reaching back many millennia. In geology, such an estimation is already encompassed by lithostratigraphy, in which the character of stratified rocks is based solely on their physical features and not past historic period. Such an interpretation represents a concept sharply distinct from the Anthropocene as a chronostratigraphic unit of measurement, though information technology can be complementary with information technology.

Working group convenors:

Colin Waters (Chair) due east-mail: cw398@leicester.air conditioning.uk
Simon Turner (Secretary) e-mail: simon.turner@ucl.air conditioning.uk

Members:

An Zhisheng e-mail: anzs@loess.llqg.ac.cn
Anthony Barnosky e-mail: tonybarnosky@stanford.edu
Alejandro Cearreta e-postal service: alejandro.cearreta@ehu.eus
Andy Cundy email: A.Cundy@noc.soton.air conditioning.united kingdom of great britain and northern ireland
Matt Edgeworth e-mail: me87@leicester.air-conditioning.britain
Erle Ellis electronic mail: ece@umbc.edu
Ian Fairchild e-mail: i.j.fairchild@bham.ac.uk
Barbara Fiałkiewicz-Koziel electronic mail: barbara.fiałkiewicz-koziel
Agnieszka Gałuszka e-mail: aggie@ujk.edu.pl
Philip Gibbard (Secretary-Full general, ICS) email: plg1@cam.air-conditioning.uk
Jacques Grinevald e-mail: jacques.grinevald@graduateinstitute.ch
Peter Haff electronic mail: haff@duke.edu
Irka Hajdas email: hajdas@phys.ethz.ch
Han Yongming e-postal service: yongming@ieecas.cn
Martin J. Head (Vice-Chair, SQS) email: mjhead@brocku.ca
Juliana Assunção Ivar do Sul email: juliana.ivardosul@io-warnemuende.de
Catherine Jeandel due east-mail: catherine.jeandel@legos.obs-mip.fr
Reinhold Leinfelder e-mail: reinhold.leinfelder@fu-berlin.de
Francine McCarthy eastward-post: fmccarthy@brocku.ca
John McNeill east-mail: mcneillj@georgetown.edu
Eric Odada email: eodada@uonbi.air-conditioning.ke
Naomi Oreskes e-mail service: oreskes@fas.harvard.edu
Clément Poirier e-mail: clement.poirier@unicaen.fr
Dan Richter electronic mail drichter@duke.edu
Neil Rose electronic mail: northward.rose@ucl.ac.uk
Yoshiki Saito east-mail: ysaito@soc.shimane-u.air conditioning.jp
Beak Shotyk east-mail: shotyk@ualberta.ca
Will Steffen e-mail: volition.steffen@anu.edu.au
Colin Summerhayes electronic mail: cps32@cam.air-conditioning.united kingdom
Jaia Syvitski e-mail: jai.syvitski@colorado.edu
Simon Turner (AWG Secretary) e-mail: simon.turner@ucl.air-conditioning.united kingdom
Davor Vidas e-mail: dvidas@fni.no
Michael Wagreich e-mail: michael.wagreich@univie.ac.at
Colin Waters (AWG Chair) due east-mail service: cw398@leicester.ac.uk
Marker Williams email: mri@leicester.air-conditioning.uk
Scott Wing e-post: wings@si.edu
Jan Zalasiewicz (Chair, SQS) e-mail: jaz1@leicester.ac.uk
Jens Zinke electronic mail: jz262@leicester.ac.great britain

Working Group communications:

    • Newsletter No.1 2009
    • Newsletter No.2 2010
    • Newsletter No.three 2012
    • Newsletter No.four 2013
    • Newsletter No.5 2014
    • Newsletter No.6 2015
    • Newsletter No.7 2017
    • Newsletter No.8 2018
    • Newsletter No.ix 2019
    • Newsletter No.x 2020
    • Newsletter No.11 2021

Publications of the Working Group on the 'Anthropocene'

2021

          • Bauer, A.M., Edgeworth, One thousand., Edwards, L.Eastward., Ellis, E.C., Gibbard, P. and Merritts, D.J., (2021). Anthropocene: result or epoch?. Nature, 597(7876), pp.332-332. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-02448-z
          • Gibbard, P.L., Bauer, A.M., Edgeworth, M., Ruddiman, W.F., Gill, J.L., Merritts, D.J., Finney, Due south.C., Edwards, 50.Due east., Walker, M.J.C., Maslin, One thousand. and Ellis, Eastward.C. (2021).  A applied solution: the Anthropocene is a geological event, not a formal epoch.  Episodes -0001, https://doi.org/10.18814/epiiugs/2021/021029
          • Head, K.J., Steffen, W., Fagerlind, D., Waters, C.Northward., Poirier, C., Syvitski, J., Zalasiewicz, J.A., Barnosky, A.D., Cearreta, A., Jeandel, C., Leinfelder, R., McNeill, J.R., Rose, N.L., Summerhayes, C., Wagreich, Chiliad. and Zinke, J. (2021). The Neat Acceleration is real and provides a quantitative basis for the proposed Anthropocene Serial/Epoch. Episodes. https://doi.org/10.18814/epiiugs/2021/021031
          • Zalasiewicz, J., Waters, C. N., Ellis, E. C., Head, Thou. J., Vidas, D., Steffen, W., Thomas, J. A., Horn, Due east., Summerhayes, C. P., Leinfelder, R., McNeill, J. R., Gałuszka, A., Williams, Yard., Barnosky, A. D., Richter, D. deB., Gibbard, P. 50., Syvitski, J., Jeandel, C., Cearreta, A., Cundy, A. B., Fairchild, I. J., Rose, N. Fifty., Ivar practise Sul, J. A., Shotyk, W., Turner, S., Wagreich, M., and Zinke, J. (2021). The Anthropocene: comparing its significant in geology (chronostratigraphy) with conceptual approaches arising in other disciplines. Earth'due south Future, 9(three), e2020EF001782  https://doi.org/ten.1029/2020EF001896

2020

          • Syvitski, J., Waters, C.Northward., Day, J., Milliman, J.D., Summerhayes, C., Steffen, W., Zalasiewicz, J., Cearreta, A., Gałuszka, A., Hajdas, I., Head, M.J., Leinfelder, R., McNeill, J.R., Poirier, C., Rose, N.L., Shotyk, Due west., Wagreich, Chiliad., Williams, M., 2020. Extraordinary human energy consumption and resultant geological impacts beginning around 1950 CE initiated the proposed Anthropocene Epoch. Communications Earth & Environment, one:32, https://doi.org/x.1038/s43247-020-00029-y
          • Zalasiewicz, J., Waters, C. and Williams, M. (2020). Chapter 31: The Anthropocene. In: Gradstein, F., Ogg, J., Schmitz, M. and Ogg, G. (eds.) A Geologic Fourth dimension Scale 2020, 1257-1280.

2019

          • Williams, M.et al. 2019. Underground metro systems: a durable geological proxy of rapid urban population growth and energy consumption during the Anthropocene. In Craig Benjamin, Esther Quaedakers and David Baker (Eds.)Anthropocene: The Routledge Handbook of Big History (Routledge Companions). Oxon: Taylor & Francis.
          • Zalasiewicz, J., Gabbott, Due south.East. and Waters C.N. 2019. Chapter 23: Plastic Waste: how plastic has go part of the World's geological cycle. In: Trevor M. Letcher and Dan  A Vallero (eds.) Waste: A Handbook for Management, 2nd edition. Elsevier, New York, 443-452.
          • Zalasiewicz, J. et al. 2019. A formal Anthropocene is compatible with but singled-out from its diachronous anthropogenic counterparts: a response to WF Ruddiman's 'three flaws in defining a formal Anthropocene'. Progress in Concrete Geography, 43(three): 319-333.
          • Zalasiewicz, J, Waters, CN et al. (Eds.) (2019). The Anthropocene as a Geological Time Unit. Loving cup. The Anthropocene, a term launched into public debate by Nobel Prize winner Paul Crutzen, has been used informally to describe the fourth dimension interval during which man actions have had a desperate effect on the Earth and its ecosystems, including anthropogenic climatic change. This book presents the underpinning geological prove for defining the Anthropocene as a geological epoch, written by the high-profile international team tasked with analysing its potential addition to the Geological Fourth dimension Scale. It discusses Anthropocene stratigraphy and ongoing changes to the Earth system, including the climate, oceans and biosphere.
             The evidence for the Anthropocene is examined in detail, ranging from chemic signals arising from pollution, to physical changes to the landscape associated with urbanisation and biological changes associated with species invasion and extinctions. The scale, way and rate of global environmental alter is placed within the context of planetary processes and deep geological fourth dimension, assuasive the reader to capeesh the scale of human-driven change to the Earth system, and compare the global transition taking place today with major transitions in Earth history. Key aspects of the geological background are explained, providing an administrative review of the Anthropocene for graduate students and academic researchers across a wide range of scientific, social scientific discipline and humanities disciplines.

2018

          • Cooper, Anthony H.et al. 2018 Humans are the most significant global geomorphological driving force of the 21st Century.Anthropocene Review. ane-8.
          • Summerhayes, C. and Zalsiewicz, J. 2018. Global warming and the Anthropocene.Geology Today,34(5): 194-200.
          • Waters, C N.et al. 2018. A Global Boundary Stratotype Sections and Points (GSSPs) for the Anthropocene Series: Where and how to wait for a potential candidate. World-Sci. Rev., 178, 379-429.
          • Waters, C North.et al. 2018. How to appointment natural archives of the Anthropocene.Geology Today, 34(five):182-187.
          • Waters, C Due north. and Zalasiewicz, J. 2018. Concrete: the most abundant novel rock type of the Anthropocene. In Dominick A. DellaSala and Michael I. Goldstein (Eds.),The Encyclopedia of the Anthropocene : Vol. one (75-85). Oxford: Elsevier.
          • Williams, 1000.et al. 2018. The palaeontological record of the Anthropocene.Geology Today,24(5): 188-193.
          • Zalasiewicz, J.et al. 2018. The Anthropocene.Geology Today, 34(5): 177-181.
          • Zalasiewicz, J.et al. 2018. The stratigraphical signature of the Anthropocene in England and its wider context.Proceedings of the Geologists' Association,129(3): 482-491.
          • Zalasiewicz, J, and Waters, C North. 2018. Arguments for an official Global Stratotype Section and Bespeak for the Anthropocene. In Dominick A. DellaSala and Michael I. Goldstein (Eds.)The Encyclopedia of the Anthropocene: Vol. one (29-34). Oxford: Elsevier.

2017

          • Grinevald, J.et al. 2017. Les preuves jusifiant une nouvelle période géologique ne manquent pas.La Recherche,520: 87-88.
          • Williams, M., Zalasiewicz, J. and Waters, C Northward. 2017. The Anthropocene: a geological perspective. In Heikkurinen, P. (Ed.),Sustainability and Peaceful Coexistence for the Anthropocene. Oxon: Taylor & Francis.
          • Zalasiewicz, J., Waters, C N. and Williams, G. 2017. Les strates de la ville de 50'Anthropocène.Annels, Histoire, Sciences Sociales,72(2): 329-351.
          • Zalasiewicz, J, Waters, CN & Head, MJ 2017. Anthropocene: its stratigraphic basis. Nature, 541 (7637): 289.
          • Zalasiewicz, J, Waters, CN et al. 2017. Making the instance for a formal Anthropocene Epoch: an assay of ongoing critiques. Newsletters on Stratigraphy, 50(2): 205-226.
          • Zalasiewicz, J, Williams, M, Waters, CN et al. 2017. Calibration and diversity of the physical technosphere: a geological perspective. Rev., iv(1): nine-22.
          • Zalasiewicz, J.et al. 2017. The geological and Globe System reality of the Anthropocene: Reply to Bauer and Ellis.Current Anthropology,59(ii): 220-223.
          • Zalasiewicz, J.et al. 2017. The Working Group on the 'Anthropocene': Summary of bear witness and recommendations.Anthropocene19: 55-60.

2016

          • Edgeworth, M.et al. 2016. Second Anthropocene Working Group Meeting (Conference Report).The European Archaeologist47.
          • Steffen, W, Leinfelder, R, Zalasiewicz, J, Waters, CN et al. 2016. Stratigraphic and Earth System Approaches to Defining the Anthropocene. Earth'southward Time to come. DOI: ten.1002/2016EF000379.
          • Waters, CN et al. 2016. The Anthropocene is functionally and stratigraphically distinct from the Holocene. Science, 351 (6269): 137.
          • Williams, Grand. et al. The Anthropocene: a conspicuous stratigraphical signal of anthropogenic changes in production and consumption across the biosphere. Earth's Hereafter 4(3): 34-53.
          • Zalasiewicz, J., Waters, CN et al. 2016. The geological cycle of plastics and their use every bit a stratigraphic indicator of the Anthropocene. Anthropocene, 13: 4-17.
          • Zalasiewicz, J., Williams, G. and Waters, C Due north. 2016. Anthropocene. In Joni Adamson, William A. Gleason, and David N. Pellow (Eds.)Keywords in the Study of Environment and Culture(14-16). New York: NYU Printing.
          • Zalasiewicz, J. et al. 2016. Petrifying earth process: the stratigraphic banner of key earth parameters in the Anthropocene. Theory, Civilisation & Society, 34(2-3): 83-104.
          • Zalasiewics, J. et al. 2016 Calibration and diversity of the physical technosphere: a geological perspective. The Anthropocene Review, 4(one): nine-22.

2015

          • Edgeworth, M, Richter, D DeB, Waters, CN et al. Diachronous beginnings of the Anthropocene: The lower bounding surface of anthropogenic deposits. Anth. Rev. 2(1): 1-26.
          • Waters, CN et al. 2015. Can nuclear weapons fallout marker the commencement of the Anthropocene Epoch? Cantlet. Sci., 71(3): 46-57.
          • Zalasiewicz, J, Waters, CN et al. Colonization of the Americas, 'Petty Ice Age' climate, and bomb-produced carbon: Their function in defining the Anthropocene. Anth. Rev., two(2): 117-127.
          • Zalasiewicz, J, Waters, CN et al. When did the Anthropocene begin? A mid-twentieth century boundary level is stratigraphically optimal. Quat. Int., 383: 196-203.
          • Zalasiewicz, J. and Waters, C N. 2015. The Anthropocene. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Ecology Scientific discipline. Framing Concepts in Environmental Science.

2014

          • Waters, CN et al. 2014. A Stratigraphical basis for the Anthropocene. Geological Gild, London, Special Publication, 395, 321pp.
          • Zalasiewicz, J, Waters, CN & Williams, G 2014. Human bioturbation, and the subterranean landscape of the Anthropocene. Anthropocene, half dozen:iii-nine.
          • Zalasiewicz, J, Williams, M, Waters, CN et al. 2014. The technofossil records of humans. Rev., one(1), 34-43.

2011

          • Williams, M et al. (Eds.) 2011. Theme upshot 'The Anthropocene: a new epoch of geological time?' Philosophical Transactions of the Purple Society A 369(1938).

2008

          • Zalasiewicz, J, Williams, M, Smith, A, Barry, TL, Coe, AL, Bown, PR, Brenchley, P, Cantrill, D, Gale, A, Gibbard, P, Gregory, FJ, Hounslow, MW, Kerr, AC, Pearson, P, Knox, R, Powell, JH, Waters, CN et al. 2008. Are we living in the Anthropocene? GSA Today, eighteen(2): iv-8.

2007

          • Steffen, Due west et al. 2007. The Anthropocene: Are Humans At present Overwhelming the Bang-up Forces of Nature? Ambio 36(8): 614-621.

2002

          • Crutzen, P.J. 2002. Geology of Mankind. Nature 415(6867), 23.

2000

          • Crutzen, P.J. & Stoermer, E.F. 2000. The "Anthropocene". Global Alter Newsletter 41: 17-18.