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The Anthropocene Epoch Began With 1945 Atomic Bomb Test, Scientists Say

Posted by Soulskill on from the either-that-or-the-day-we-invented-hot-pockets dept.

hypnosec writes: Scientists have proposed July 16, 1945 as the beginning of the Anthropocene Epoch. That was the day of the first nuclear detonation test. They say "the Great Acceleration" — the period when human activities started having a significant impact on Earth – are a good mark of the beginning of the new epoch. Since then, there has been a significant increase in population, environmental upheaval on land and oceans, and global connectivity. The group says in their article (abstract), "The beginning of the nuclear age ... marks the historic turning point when humans first accessed an enormous new energy source – and is also a time level that can be effectively tracked within geological strata, using a variety of geological clues."

7 of 154 comments (clear)

  1. Broken Style by 31415926535897 · · Score: 5, Informative

    The Anthropocene Epoch ended when the Bad Slashdot Style Epoch began after the following style code was introduced:

    #comments { clear:both; display:block; position:relative; padding: 0; margin: 0 0 0 122px; padding-right: 1.5em;z-index:1;}

    Get rid of the 122px left margin--it's wasting a lot of space.

  2. Rubbish, and reversed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Informative

    Incandescently stupid attempt at cloaking the usual climate alarmism in a layer of pseudo-science. And the propagandists who bring us this nonsense have it exactly backward - nuclear power could be the key to minimizing man's negative impact on the environment, if blinkered greens would allow it.

    1. Re:Rubbish, and reversed by Ionized · · Score: 4, Informative

      the detonation of the atomic bomb is a perfectly reasonable way to mark the beginning of a new epoch, because there is a very real and easily identifiable geologic marker for that event (radioactive isotopes & plastic in the topsoil.) if millions of years from now aliens discovered our planet and looked through geological data, and wanted to classify periods based on that data, it's a safe bet that the sudden proliferation of radioactive isotopes and appearance of an entirely new substance (plastic) would be something that they noticed.

      as for the necessity of defining a new epoch - would you deny that humans have profoundly changed the planet? no value judgements being made here, just straight facts, the planet is WAY FUCKING DIFFERENT than it was 1000 years ago due to human population explosions and human construction. also, lots of newly-extinct species.

      but, i at least agree with you about nuclear power being the solution to a lot of our problems, if we would stop being such pussies about it. that has nothing to do with the topic at hand, though.

  3. Re:I don't think so. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    Yes, but they're talking about detectability of a time marker in Earth history. Post-1945 or so it is easy to detect radioisotopes in sediments being deposited world-wide.

  4. Re:Academic wankery at its finest by mspohr · · Score: 5, Informative

    Also... from TFAbstract, they chose the date because all of the nuclear explosions have left a clear marker of radioisotopes which can be easily located when tracing the geological record.

    --
    I don't read your sig. Why are you reading mine?
  5. Re:I don't think so. by shadowrat · · Score: 3, Informative

    i get a statistic that in 2013, china produced approximately 1 coal plant a week.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C...

    unless we are talking about may 17, 2013. for that time period, china did apparently produce 1 coal plant a day.

    i don't even know why i feel the need to argue this though. it has little to do with the topic. i just can't fight the urge to look up statistics. i think there's something wrong with me.

  6. Re:Steel, E = mc^2" by David Bodanis, and Space... by rubycodez · · Score: 3, Informative

    nice try but coal from the industrial age also threw heavy radioisotopes into the air, starting centuries ago