The ‘Anthropocene’ (2000)

Abstract

ThenameHolocene (‘Recent Whole’) for the post-glacial geological epoch of the past ten to twelve thousand years seems to have been proposed for the first time by Sir Charles Lyell in 1833, and adopted by the International Geological Congress in Bologna in 1885 (Encyclopaedia Britannica, Micropaedia, IX, Encyclopaedia Britannica, London, 1976). During the Holocene mankind’s activities gradually grew into a significant geological, morphological force, as recognised early on by a number of scientists. Thus, G. P. Marsh already in 1864 published a book with the title Man and Nature, more recently reprinted as The Earth as Modified by Human Action(Marsh Marsh, G. P., 1965: The Earth as Modified by Human Action (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, Harvard University Press).). Stoppani in 1873 rated mankind’s activities as a “new telluric force which in power and universality may be compared to the greater forces of earth” [quoted from Clark Clark, W.C., 1986; in: Clark, W.C.; Munn, R.E. (eds.): Sustainable Development of the Biosphere (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), chapt. 1.). Stoppani already spoke of the anthropozoic era. Mankind has now inhabited or visited almost all places on Earth; he has even set foot on the moon.

This text was first published by Paul J. Crutzen and Eugene F. Stoermer: “The ‘Anthropocene’”, in: Global Change Newsletter, 41 (May 2000): 17-18. The journal is out of print and the text is in the public domain. The authors thank the many colleagues, especially the members of the IGBP Scientific Committee, for encouraging correspondence and advice.