Key Points
Scientists have for the first time quantified the human impact on the planet and said that it led to the beginning of a new epoch on Earth in the 1950s..
While there is evidence worldwide that captures the impact of burning fossil fuels, detonating nuclear weapons, and dumping fertilizers and plastics on land and in waterways, the scientists are proposing a small but deep lake outside of Toronto, Canada Crawford Lake to place a historic marker...
The factors that led to the classification of this new epoch include an increase in erosion and sediment transport, abrupt changes in the cycles of elements such as carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus; environmental changes generated by these perturbations, including global warming, sea-level rise; rapid changes in the biosphere both on land and in the sea; and habitat loss among others...
Its quite clear that the scale of change has intensified unbelievably and that has to be human impact, said University of Leicester geologist Colin Waters, who chaired the Anthropocene Working Group...
However, while that meteorite started a whole new era, the working group is proposing that humans only started a new epoch, which is a much smaller geologic time period...
