Anthropocene en · PROPN
Pronunciation
- (Southern-England) audio
- /ˈæn.θɹə.pəˌsiːn/ (Received-Pronunciation)
- /ˈæn.θɹə.pəˌsin/ (General-American)
- /ænˈθɹɑp.əˌsin/ (General-American)
Etymology
From a combination of anthropo- + -cene modeled on Holocene, Pleistocene, and similar. First attested in the 1960s in the translations of Russian-language scientific articles, possibly with a different meaning. Supposedly coined independently in the 1980s by American biologist Eugene Stoermer and later popularized by Dutch atmospheric chemist Paul J. Crutzen in 2000.
Meanings
-
(formal, qualifier:strictly) A proposed but rejected geological epoch, in which the effect of human activities on the global environment has disrupted the natural variability of the Holocene, ending the Holocene. (It was rejected as formal scientific nomenclature in 2024 owing to not meeting a bar for how a geological epoch is formally defined.)
Holonyms: Quaternary (current period), Age of Man (dated)
We’re supposed to be living through the Anthropocene, an era where human activity has become the dominant influence on the environment. The idea of the Anthropocene conjures notions of human omnipotence.
2020 April 9, Richard Horton, “Coronavirus is the greatest global science policy failure in a generation”, in The Guardian:Phoenix [in Arizona] and Lubbock [in Texas] are both caught in severe drought, and it is going to get much worse. We may see many such [dust] storms in the decades ahead, along with species extinctions, radical disturbance of ecosystems, and intensified social conflict over land and water. Welcome to the Anthropocene, the epoch when humans have become a major geological and climatic force.
2012 January–February, Donald Worster, “A Drier and Hotter Future [review of A Great Aridness: Climate Change and the Future of the American Southwest (2011) by William deBuys]”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 1, archived from the original on 01 May 2017, page 70:The above palynologic data indicate that the evolutionary history of vegetation in the upper reaches of the Indigirka during the Holocene was much more complex than has been thought and than is reflected in the existing stratigraphic maps of the Anthropocene of the Northeast USSR[…].
1967, Doklady of the Academy of Sciences of the U.S.S.R.: Earth Sciences Sections, volumes 172–177, Washington, D.C.: American Geological Institute, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 62, column 2:Considering these and many other major and still growing impacts of human activities on earth and atmosphere, and at all, including global, scales, it seems to us more than appropriate to emphasize the central role of mankind in geology and ecology by proposing to use the term "anthropocene" for the current geological epoch.
2000 May, Paul J[ozef] Crutzen, Eugene F. Stoermer, “The ‘Anthropocene’”, in Will Steffen, editor, Global Change Newsletter, number 41, Stockholm, Sweden: IGBP Secretariat, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, →ISSN, archived from the original on 09 Oct 2017, page 17:Plastics are energy-rich substances, which is why many of them burn so readily. Any organism that could unlock and use that energy would do well in the Anthropocene. Terrestrial bacteria and fungi which can manage this trick are already familiar to experts in the field.
2013 July 20, “Welcome to the Plastisphere: What is Pollution to Some is Opportunity to Others”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845, archived from the original on 31 Jul 2013:The tempo of evolution in South American hamsters was very rapid – in the course of the Pliocene and Anthropocene 40 genera were formed here, at which time a series of them attained the level of tribe and subtribe (Oxymycteri, Phyllotiini, Ichthyomyini).
1960, Doklady. Biological Sciences Sections, volumes 132–135, Washington, D.C.: American Institute of Biological Sciences, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 640, column 2:The guardians of the world’s official geological timescale have firmly rejected a proposal to declare an Anthropocene epoch, after an epic academic row.
2024 March 22, Damian Carrington, “Geologists reject declaration of Anthropocene epoch”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
-
(broadly, informal) The era of human impact on the environment, irrespective of its nomenclatural status as a geological event or epoch; especially, the era of large impact (i.e., on industrial and postindustrial scale).
Holonyms: Holocene (current epoch) < Quaternary (current period), Age of Man (dated)
Meronym: assholocene (informal)
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| the Anthropocene | canonical | lexicographic |
Coordinates
Deriveds
Relateds
anthropogenic · anthropocenic · ecocrisis · climate denial · Pyrocene · sozology
Translations (20)
el Ανθρωπόκαινο (the current geological period) · pt Antropoceno (the current geological period) · cmn 人類世 /人类世 (the current geological period) · de Anthropozän (the current geological period) · ja 人新世 (the current geological period) · ko 인류세 (the current geological period) · fr anthropocène (the current geological period) · pl antropocen (the current geological period) · ru Антропоце́н (the current geological period) · et antropotseen (the current geological period) · nl antropoceen (the current geological period) · es Antropoceno (the current geological period) · gl antropoceno (the current geological period) · ja アントロポセン (the current geological period) · fa آنتروپوسین (the current geological period) · sk antropocén (the current geological period) · cs antropocén (the current geological period) · ja アンソロポシーン (the current geological period) · fi antroposeeni (the current geological period) · sv antropocen (the current geological period)