Prehistory, the Middle Ages or the Contemporary Age represent popularly known concepts. These are part of the system that, broadly speaking, divides the different stages of human history. However, there are also other time scales focused on different aspects. One of the most important is that of geological eras, which is currently being debated by the scientific community. And this is due to the intention to include a new one: the Anthropocene. However, the issue is proving especially controversial and experts are unable to reach a consensus.
Last March, some of the members of the International Union of Geological Sciences flatly opposed the proposal to declare the Anthropocene official. Whether or not to recognize this new geological time interval has become a hot topic for the scientific community, in which two opposing sides have developed: those who want it to be recognized and those who seek to prevent it.
The concept of Anthropocene was introduced by the scientist Paul Crutzen, Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry in 1995. It took place through a publication in the bulletin of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Program that he presented in 2000 together with Eugene Stoermer. Although, later, it would be published in the magazine “Nature”. What the Dutchman proposed was the designation of a new geological epoch that would begin with the Industrial Revolution at the end of the 18th century. And that would position human beings as a “predominant environmental force”, that is, we would be talking about making the “age of human beings” official.
The history of the world is divided by a geological time scale, with which the different time periods that make it up are organized and assigned, such as the Era, the Period, the Epoch or the Age. Currently, the planet is in the Cenozoic era, in the Quaternary period and in the Holocene epoch. And it is precisely at this point where part of the scientific community seeks to introduce this change, by requesting the recognition of the Anthropocene as the new and current geological epoch.
The main obstacle, as explained by the German researcher Helmuth Trischler, comes from differentiating the Anthropocene from a scientific and cultural point of view, since it would be giving rise to a crossover of disciplines with said concept. Something that is considered positively by some scientists, who see it as an opportunity for interdisciplinary collaboration; and negative by those who believe that this strict division should be maintained.
And it is not possible to reach a consensus that, in a future of thousands and thousands of years, the stratum that corresponds to the current era of human beings can be distinguished by whether or not the Earth has changed due to its activity.
