The Latest Breaking News from Anthropocene

New start date for the Anthropocene proposed – when humans first changed global methane levels

Humans have been reshaping the environment for at least 10,000 years. But the Anthropocene is the name given to the specific period of Earth history during which humans have had a global effect on the planet’s climate and ecosystems. Despite formal rejection as a geological epoch, it’s widely understood within…

The Conversation · Jun 19, 2025

‘Human activity on a massive scale’: a photo exhibition tackles the climate crisis

Photographs from across the globe capture the impact of people on the climate – and of the climate on people

The Guardian - US · Feb 26, 2025

Playground by Richard Powers review – an electrifyingly beautiful tale of tech and the ocean

The wonders of oceanic life shine through in a magical book that is at once Anthropocene novel, disquieting AI thriller, postcolonial allegory and a portrait of friendship

The Guardian - UK · Sep 29, 2024

The moon has reached a 'new epoch', a lunar Anthropocene, scientists say

The deleterious effects on the moon must be mitigated or may worsen

Evening Standard · Dec 11, 2023

The Anthropocene epoch: end of an era?

In the early 19th century, scientists started using rock strata to divide the Earth’s 4.6-billion-year history into distinct periods. By that point, they were beginning to realise that Earth was far, far older than previously thought, and were naming and organising different rock formations in an attempt to impose order…

The Week · Sep 9, 2023

Nuclear bombs set off new geological epoch in the 1950s, scientists say

Nuclear testing in the 1950s marked sediments at the bottom of a lake in Canada to such an extent that scientists are calling for it to become the symbol of a new geological epoch: the Anthropocene.

Space · Jul 18, 2023

Consider the heatwave and floods: can we still save the planet for our children? I think we can

It is easy to despair as we leave one geological epoch and enter another. Our situation is dire, but we can address it, says author Gaia Vince

The Guardian - UK · Jul 18, 2023

This Small Canadian Lake Could Signal The Beginning of a New Geological Epoch

Are we really living in the Anthropocene, the geological time marked by the global impact of human activity? And if so, when did it begin?

Inverse · Jul 15, 2023

Nuclear bombs set off new geological epoch in the 1950s, scientists say

Nuclear testing in the 1950s marked sediments at the bottom of a lake in Canada to such an extent that scientists are calling for it to become the symbol of a new geological epoch: the Anthropocene.

LiveScience · Jul 14, 2023

Scientists say new epoch marked by human impact — the Anthropocene — began in 1950s

The Anthropocene Working Group is proposing a small but deep lake outside of Toronto, Canada — Crawford Lake — to place a historic marker.

WEKU · Jul 11, 2023