What is the Anthropocene?
Human impacts on the way our planet functions have now become so extreme many scientists are claiming the Earth has shifted out of the Holocene state and int...
The name "Anthropocene" in Greek means "Age of Humans." The term was popularized by Paul Crutzen, a Nobel Prize-winning atmospheric chemist who thought that we should categorize the age we are living in as a new geologic epoch, in recognition of the fact that the primary force shaping the planet is now humanity. Although not yet a formal geologic epoch, it has become a commonly used scientific and cultural term to discuss the rapid human-caused changes taking place on Earth, from species redistribution to global heating to land-use change.