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

Authors

Jaia Syvitsk
Colin N. Waters
John Day
John D. Milliman, Virginia Institute of Marine Science
et al

Document Type

Article

Department/Program

Virginia Institute of Marine Science

Publication Date

2020

Journal

Nature Communications Earth and Environment

Volume

1

Issue

32

First Page

1

Last Page

13

Abstract

Growth in fundamental drivers—energy use, economic productivity and population—can provide quantitative indications of the proposed boundary between the Holocene Epoch and the Anthropocene. Human energy expenditure in the Anthropocene, ~22 zetajoules (ZJ),exceeds that across the prior 11,700 years of the Holocene (~14.6 ZJ), largely through combustion of fossil fuels. The global warming effect during the Anthropocene is more thanan order of magnitude greater still. Global human population, their productivity and energy consumption, and most changes impacting the global environment, are highly correlated. This extraordinary outburst of consumption and productivity demonstrates how the Earth System has departed from its Holocene state since ~1950 CE, forcing abrupt physical, chemical and biological changes to the Earth’s stratigraphic record that can be used to justify the proposal for naming a new epoch—the Anthropocene.

DOI

doi: 10.1038/s43247-020-00029-y |

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Recommended Citation

Syvitsk, Jaia; Waters, Colin N.; Day, John; Milliman, John D.; and et al, Extraordinary human energy consumption and resultant geological impacts beginning around 1950CE initiated the proposed Anthropocene Epoch (2020). Nature Communications Earth and Environment, 1(32), 1-13.

doi: 10.1038/s43247-020-00029-y |