As scientists argue that people have profoundly altered the world sufficiently to deserve our geological period, another issue arises: is there anything that has remained untouched by humanity’s presence? Soaring greenhouse gases, pervasive “forever chemicals,” worldwide animal upheaval, and even old mobile phones and chicken bones have all been presented as evidence that the Earth entered the Anthropocene, or era of humans, in the mid-20th century.
When asked if there was someplace on Earth that lacked indications of human influence, Jan Zalasiewicz, a British geologist who chaired the Anthropocene Working Group for nearly a decade, pondered for a while. “It’s hard to think of a more remote place” than Antarctica’s Pine Island glacier, Zalasiewicz told AFP.
However, indications of plutonium were discovered when scientists delved deep into the glacier’s ice a few years ago. It was the lingering fallout from nuclear bomb tests that began in 1945, leaving a radioactive presence unlike any other. According to Zalasiewicz, these radionuclides were maybe “the sharpest signal” to identify the beginning of the Anthropocene period 70 years ago.
However, “there’s an awful lot to choose from,” he noted. The Anthropocene Working Group is set to unveil its decision for the epoch’s “golden spike” location on Tuesday, choosing the location that best embodies the numerous ways people have impacted the Earth. However, the statement will not make the Anthropocene an official geological time unit just yet, as geologists around the world continue to comb through the evidence.
Anthropocene: The burden of humanity
Another key calling card of the Anthropocene is the tremendous increase in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that is heating the earth. Many things altered “once humans developed the technology to pull fossilized sunshine — in the form of oil, coal, and gas — out of the ground,” according to Zalasiewicz. According to Anthropocene experts, humans have consumed more energy since 1950 than in the previous 11,700 years of the Holocene epoch. This new power was exploited to rule the planet in unprecedented ways. Land and animals were both used to feed the world’s growing population.
According to studies, humans and their livestock account for 96 percent of the biomass of all land mammals on the earth, with wild animals accounting for only four percent. According to Zalasiewicz, supermarket hens, which have been bred to grow far larger than natural, account for two-thirds of all avian biomass. Humans have also reshuffled species over the world, introducing invasive species like rats to even the most distant Pacific islands.
The mass of all human-made objects had surpassed the weight of all living species in the world
Researchers calculated in 2020 that the mass of all human-made objects had surpassed the weight of all living species in the world. These artifacts were dubbed “technofossils” by Anthropocene researchers. Mobile phones, which become obsolete so quickly, are just one example of a technofossil that will “be part of the Anthropocene record,” according to Zalasiewicz.
Microplastics, which are smaller fragments of plastic, have been found on the planet’s highest peaks and at the bottom of the deepest oceans. Substances known as PFAS, or “forever chemicals,” which were developed for products such as nonstick cookware, are also becoming increasingly prevalent around the world.
Pesticides, fertilizers, rising nitrogen, and phosphate levels, even human skeletons buried in the ground — the list of potential Anthropocene indicators is long. According to scientists, all of these marks will be preserved hundreds of thousands of years in the future for our future ancestors – or any other beings who wish to look – insight into this human era.
“We go two ways from here”
“One of the signals that you would want to see from the Anthropocene is humanity responding positively,” said Mark Williams, a British paleontologist and member of the Anthropocene Working Group. The fossil record does not yet reveal evidence of a major extinction, but one “is now very much on the cards,” he told AFP. “We go two ways from here,” he added.
Is there somewhere on the planet that does not bear a human fingerprint? The scientists agreed that the only such location was most likely beneath the ice in Antarctica. However, if nothing changes, these ice sheets will be slowly dissolved by global warming, according to Zalasiewicz.
