Journal Article

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

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

2020

Overview

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 than an 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.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.

• Publisher: Nature Publishing Group
• Subject: Anthropocene / Climate change / Earth / Energy consumption / Fossil fuels / Global warming / Holocene / Human populations / Productivity / Quantitative analysis / Stratigraphy