Terrible, no good, very bad year: Scientists name date we began ruining the Earth

A growing number of scientists say that humanity is the most powerful force on the planet — shaping the environment more than water, wind, or plate tectonics — and suggest renaming the present geologic epoch to reflect that human influence: the Anthropocene. The idea has been gaining steam in both the scientific and mainstream press ever since two prominent researchers suggested several years ago that the earth has entered a distinct phase of human domination. In a new report published in the journal Nature, Simon Lewis of University College London and Mark Maslin of the University of Leeds, evaluate when the Anthropocene Epoch officially began.

Formally defining the Anthropocene would state that humans are a force of nature at a geological scale…It changes almost 500 years of scientific understanding, which has pushed humans to become more and more insignificant.

Simon Lewis, an ecologist at University College in London

The two dates that meet their standards are 1610 and 1964. A tiny dip in the amount of carbon dioxide in Earth’s atmosphere marks 1610 as an inflection point of an ongoing era of intensive human influence on Earth’s biology, geology and chemistry, known as the “New-Old World Collision.” In 1964, radioactive isotopes from nuclear bomb testing peaked. However, it’s unknown if study’s findings will persuade the official gatekeepers that name new geologic time periods. The process for such a designation is long and bureaucratic, and would ultimately require ratification by the International Union of Geological Sciences.

Science Anthropocene