Communications Earth & Environment (Oct 2020)

Extraordinary human energy consumption and resultant geological impacts beginning around 1950 CE initiated the proposed Anthropocene Epoch

  • Jaia Syvitski,
  • Colin N. Waters,
  • John Day,
  • John D. Milliman,
  • Colin Summerhayes,
  • Will Steffen,
  • Jan Zalasiewicz,
  • Alejandro Cearreta,
  • Agnieszka Gałuszka,
  • Irka Hajdas,
  • Martin J. Head,
  • Reinhold Leinfelder,
  • J. R. McNeill,
  • Clément Poirier,
  • Neil L. Rose,
  • William Shotyk,
  • Michael Wagreich,
  • Mark Williams

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-020-00029-y
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 1, no. 1
pp. 1 – 13

Abstract

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Human energy consumption and productivity have steeply risen around 1950 CE, leading to a departure from the Earth’s Holocene state into the Anthropocene, suggests a quantitative analysis of humanity’s influence on the Earth system.