Anthropocene

noun

An·​thro·​po·​cene ˈan(t)-thrə-pə-ˌsēn 

an-ˈthrä-

: the period of time during which human activities have had an environmental impact on the Earth regarded as constituting a distinct geological time interval

In the long history of this planet, our current time, the human age known as the Anthropocene, is the first in which a single species will so rapidly reshape the future of Earth's climate and all the other conditions that make life as we know it livable.

—Erle C. Ellis

Most scientists agree that humans have had a hand in warming Earth's climate since the industrial revolution—some even argue that we are living in a new geological epoch, dubbed the Anthropocene.

—Betsy Mason

Examples of Anthropocene in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Even the frequent flying and conspicuous consumption that have—rightly or wrongly—been a stereotype of the pastime might melt away as the industry strives to remain culturally acceptable in the Anthropocene, Shepherd suggests. —Chris Baraniuk, WIRED, 18 Jan. 2023

To track in the Anthropocene is to document loss; as biodiversity collapses, its absence is reflected in the ground itself. —Ben Goldfarb, Smithsonian Magazine, 23 Oct. 2024

Everything Is Tuberculosis marks Green’s second nonfiction book, following his 2021 bestseller The Anthropocene Reviewed; the author is also known for young adult fiction including the novels The Fault in Our Stars and Paper Towns. —Carly Tagen-Dye, People.com, 22 Oct. 2024

But given the breakneck pace of environmental change in the Anthropocene, many can’t adapt fast enough. —Cody Cottier, Discover Magazine, 30 Sep. 2024

Perhaps then, the Anthropocene might become the middle of a larger story, rather than the end of this one. —Longreads, 3 May 2024

The Holocene epoch that followed the last glaciation is an Anthropocene or, given the catalytic role of fire, a Pyrocene. —Stephen Pyne, Scientific American, 16 Apr. 2024

While on one hand this may seem like a niche scientific conflict over terminology, the arguments for and against naming this the Anthropocene have proven to be about way more than mere semantics. —Rafi Schwartz, theweek, 15 Mar. 2024

Word History

Etymology

anthropo- + -cene

Note: The name was formally proposed by the Dutch chemist Paul J. Crutzen and the American biologist Eugene F. Stoermer in "The 'Anthropocene'," Global Change Newsletter (newsletter of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme, International Council for Science), No. 41 (May, 2000), pp. 17-18. According to his own recollection, Stoermer employed the word earlier ("I began using the term 'anthropocene' in the 1980s, but never formalized it until Paul [Crutzen] contacted me." —J. Grinevald, La Biosphère de l'Anthropocène [Geneva, 2007], p. 243, cited in Will Steffen, et al., "The Anthropocene: conceptual and historical perspectives," Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A, vol. 369 [2011], p. 843).

First Known Use

2000, in the meaning defined above