ANTHROPOGENIC CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE EMERGENCE OF A NEW EPOCH 1

Anthropogenic Climate Change and the Emergence of a New Epoch

Bailee Lessenberry

Department of Biology, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

ENG 2820

Russell Helms

April 10, 2020

ANTHROPOGENIC CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE EMERGENCE OF A NEW EPOCH 2

Abstract

As humanity’s effects on earth’s global climate systems become more pronounced,

experts have considered the prospect of introducing a third subsection to the Quaternary Period.

Following the Pleistocene and Holocene, this new epoch would be named the Anthropocene,

giving nod to the human-centric impact that has facilitated the shift in the geological record. The

Subcommission of Quaternary Stratigraphy has implemented an Anthropocene Working Group

in order to analyze the data surrounding this proposition, which has led to the group suggested

three potential starting points for the Anthropocene. These times include thousands of years ago

during the beginning of the agricultural age, at the onset of the Industrial Revolution at the mid-

nineteenth century, and during the mid-twentieth century at the start of nuclear testing.

Furthermore, evidence from atmospheric carbon dioxide and methane levels, heat content

fluctuations in upper sea columns, and consistent global temperature rising has shown that

human impact on earth has been steadily increasing over time, which has helped enable our

movement into this new time period.

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Over the span of humanity’s time on earth, humans have drastically modified the planet

in order to better suit their needs, whether it be extracting precious materials from the earth’s

crust to making transportation easier and subsequently polluting earth’s atmosphere. Since

classical times, people have been aware of climate change; however, it was then viewed as a

mandate from Heaven in order to “complete the Creation” (von Storch, 2006). Throughout

history, weather anomalies have been attributed to divine punishment or occult activity. An

example of this is seen in Medieval Europe where extreme climate events were seen as

punishment for parishes who were too tolerant of witches, who religious people believed were

the cause of climatic variation (von Storch, 2006).

As society progressed and centuries passed, the concept of climate change began to take a

more scientific and menacing form. Since the 18th century, scientists have known that

anthropogenic climate change was an issue that should be taken seriously, lest posterity face the

consequences of an inhabitable earth (von Storch, 2006). However, only recently has

anthropogenic climate change exited academic circles and become a household topic. Initially

brought forward once more in the early 21st century, atmospheric chemist Paul Crutzen proposed

that anthropogenic effects on the environment had reached severe enough levels to not only

overshadow natural climate change but to also bestow a new time period upon the geologic time

scale to properly signify the times we live in (Head, 2015). Crutzen coined this new epoch with

the term “Anthropocene”, paying homage to the human-centric effects seen throughout the earth.

This new epoch would be the third subsection of the Quaternary period, which represents the

past 2.58 million years. This period is currently divided into two epochs: the Pleistocene (2.58

million years to 11,700 years) and the Holocene (11,700 years to present). Following typical

protocol, the recognition of this new epoch would require the Anthropocene to have a distinct
ANTHROPOGENIC CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE EMERGENCE OF A NEW EPOCH 4

global signature from that of the Holocene and Pleistocene, as well as have markers of

significant and possibly irreversible biostratigraphic, geochemical, and sedimentary indicators.

To determine the validity of the proposed Anthropocene epoch, the Subcommission on

Quaternary Stratigraphy’s Anthropocene Working Group is a task force centered around

analyzing evidence, performing studies, and gathering information on this topic in order to reach

a logical decision. The group currently is considering three potential options for the onset of the

epoch: thousands of years ago at the dawn of agrarianism, the beginning of the Industrial

Revolution in the mid-nineteenth century, and during the “Great Acceleration” of the mid-

twentieth century (Head, 2015). Of the proposed beginnings, the last has the most dramatic and

globally unified climatic signals. The group calls for the Anthropocene to not be marked by a

Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point, but instead by a Global Standard Stratigraphic

Age. The reason behind this is due to the chemostratigraphic signature of plutonium-239 that

was left behind by the world’s first nuclear bomb detonation on July 16th, 1945 (Head, 2015).

This event is favored by the group due to the standard stratigraphic criteria that requires “a

significant, globally widespread and abrupt signature to identify the boundary event worldwide,”

and radiogenic fallout is most well-suited (Head, 2015).

Today, the effect of humanity on earth’s surface and processes is unignorable, as extreme

climate phenomenon is present throughout the earth’s aquatic and terrestrial biomes as well as in

the atmosphere. In 1995, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change stated that after

examining scientific evidence with great scrutiny, that the equilibrium of evidence weighed in

favor of palpable human influence on the global climate (von Storch, 2006). Humankind’s

extensive impact on the earth has helped quickly facilitate a premature shift in the geologic
ANTHROPOGENIC CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE EMERGENCE OF A NEW EPOCH 5

record, pushing the earth from the Holocene into the Anthropocene, a new era where the effects

of humanity’s actions are becoming more pronounced.

There is a large body of scientific evidence proving that earth is indeed undergoing large-

scale anthropogenic climate change. Among the data, “detection and attribution” studies are

some of the most important in measuring climatic variation (von Storch, 2006). During the

detection portion of these studies, observational evidence records are examined and if the most

recent data is beyond the scope of normal variability, it is concluded that non-natural factors are

at work in the environment. During the next step of attribution, climate models are inspected for

a mix of responses to anthropogenic activity that best explains the most recent data.

The measurement of anthropogenic greenhouse-gas emissions has been implemented in

order to keep a watchful eye on the state of the atmosphere. Since the mid-19th century, human

activities have caused a sharp rise in atmospheric methane and carbon dioxide concentrations

that have superseded values of previous centuries (Ruddiman, 2013). Measurements of methane

and carbon dioxide are shown to have exponentially risen over the past one-hundred and seventy

years due to the adverse effects of industrialization. As shown in Fig. 1, pre-industrial carbon

dioxide measurements in the year 1800 averaged at 270 ppm and methane measurements were at

730 ppb (Ruddiman, 2013). Looking forward at Fig. 1 into the year 1900, half a century after the

beginning of the industrial revolution, carbon dioxide measurements had raised to 290 ppm while

methane measurements were now at 800 ppb. In the year 2000, as shown by Fig. 1,

measurements had soared even higher at 340 ppm and methane now measured at 1250 ppb

(Ruddiman, 2013). This data supports the view that humanity has shifted prematurely from the
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Holocene epoch and into the Anthropocene over the past two centuries through rapid

industrialization.

Fig. 1, Exponential increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide and methane concentrations since

the mid-nineteenth century (Ruddiman, 2013)

While most studies regarding anthropogenic climate change have been focused around

atmospheric observations, a key constituent of the global climate system is the world’s oceans.

The effects of humankind’s actions are very prevalent throughout the earth’s oceans from
ANTHROPOGENIC CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE EMERGENCE OF A NEW EPOCH 7

pollution of beaches and waters to modification of the chemistry of the ocean. Oceans cover

around 72% of the earth’s surface and have thermal inertia and heat capacity that helps preserve

and improve climate variability (Barnett, 2001).

Observational studies have shown that over the past half-century, significant increases in

heat content of the upper ocean have been recorded around the world (Barnett, 2001). The global

climate model data from these studies depict the decadal values of heat content as rising with

accuracy in regard to the observed and estimated gases released by a rise in anthropogenic

activity. In Fig. 2, decadal changes over the last forty-five years in the heat content of the upper

three thousand meters of the ocean’s water column estimated from observations are shown

(Barnett, 2001). This was followed up by a computation from the Parallel Climate Model

software, which ran five different permutations forced by the same observational and estimated

greenhouse gas concentrations caused by anthropogenic activity. The Parallel Climate Model is

an advanced forecasting software that is a product of cooperation between numerous universities

and governmental laboratories in the United States (Barnett, 2001).

In Fig. 2, the darkened dashed line represents the observations from the studies

previously mentioned, while the solid lines are the mean values of the ranges from the Parallel

Climate Model. A surprisingly close correspondence between observed heat-content change in

the world’s oceans and the models ran by the Parallel Climate Model are shown.
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Fig 2. Decadal values of heat content in the world’s ocean basins (Barnett, 2001)

The application of this software and its results suggest that the model-produced

indicators are indistinguishable from observations made by scientists at the 0.05 confidence level

(Barnett, 2001). This data suggests that observations from the ocean heat-content variations are

consistent with expectations of anthropogenic climate change. This in turn strengthens the basis

for a claim that human activity has signaled a change in the earth’s natural systems and is slowly

creeping into a new era where anthropogenic activity is widely detected throughout the global

climate system.
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Another way that scientists have measured anthropogenic climate change is through

keeping record of global temperature anomalies and utilizing forecasting software to predict

trends. By modeling natural forces such as volcanic aerosols, orbital shifts, and solar insolation

on their own run (represented by the blue line in Fig. 3) and anthropogenic forces such as

greenhouse gases, land changes, and sulfate aerosols alone as well (represented by the red line in

Fig. 3), a clear source of temperature fluctuation is shown. In the natural warming run, the

temperature shows warming during the early twentieth century that resulted from volcanic

activity and increases in solar insolation, followed by a period of cooling in the latter half of the

century that was started and continued by a series of significant volcanic events (Matthews,

2004). The anthropogenic specific warming run shows a steady increase of warming throughout

the model run; however, a sharp increase is noted after the year 1960.

Fig. 3, Temperature Anomaly Model Forcings (Matthews, 2004)

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Figure 3 Key

DATA – Global Temperature Data

ALL – All Model Forcings

NAT – Natural Model Forcings

ANTH – Anthropogenic Model Forcings

Based on the results of this data, it is concluded that warming in the beginning of the century was

both a combination of human caused and natural forces, while the distinct warming of the end

half of the twentieth century can only be explained by greenhouse gas forcing (Matthews, 2004).

While the data supporting the shift of our planet’s systems due to human-caused climate

change is widely agreed upon by experts, there are still discrepancies in whether or not the

Anthropocene should be formalized. Furthermore, scientists are conflicted about the ambiguity

of choosing a starting date for the Anthropocene, as anthropogenic impact is non-linear and

complex. There is much discussion over when the official beginning of the Anthropocene

should be dated, or if it even can be dated, as human activity began at different times around the

globe. Proposed starts to this epoch include thousands of years ago at the beginning of

humanity’s shift to an agrarian society, where land modification first began, to the mid-

nineteenth century at the onset of the Industrial Revolution, and finally as recent as the mid-

twentieth century whenever the first nuclear bomb was detonated and booming industrialization

and population growth became global (Head, 2015). However, the Subcommission on

Quaternary Stratigraphy’s Anthropocene Working Group supports the idea that the mid-

twentieth century is the best starting date due to the plutonium-239 isotope found throughout

sedimentary records (Head, 2015).

ANTHROPOGENIC CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE EMERGENCE OF A NEW EPOCH 11

Experts argue that a formal designation of an Anthropocene epoch has potential issues

with clarity, as the history of human activity is not single-faceted and directional, but

diachronistic and complex (Lewin, 2013). However, just as the Pleistocene was characterized by

megafaunal decline and the Holocene by early carbon-dioxide augmentation, deforestation and

mining, the Anthropocene is defined by the rapid rate of industrialization in the mid-nineteenth

century, fossil fuel exploitation, oceanic acidification and warming, and the atmospheric impact

of nuclear detonations (Lewin, 2013). This new epoch could further be diagnosed by the physical

markers left behind by humans such as glass and metal containers, plastic waste, and

infrastructure. However, as this is taken into account, can a single date be implemented by the

International Commission on Stratigraphy to mark the beginning of the Anthropocene? A single

golden spike marking the onset of the Anthropocene seems unrealistic to most scientists. An

early date downplays the rapid acceleration of anthropogenic activity and globalization over the

past one hundred years, while a later date excludes numerous anthropogenic impacts that

occurred before the twentieth century (Lewin, 2013).

As climate change continues to loom in the background, ignored by corporations and

governments, it is critical that scientists convey knowledge in order to guide elected officials and

the public in developing rational policies in order to deal with the unavoidable future that

anthropogenic climate change has created. Recognition of an Anthropocene epoch would raise

awareness of the impact that human activity has had on the earth’s systems and it must be

officially recognized in order to promote substantial change.

While climate change forecasts are unavoidably uncertain, it is abundantly clear that

humanity has played a role in the modification of earth’s surface and natural processes. As our
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oceans’ temperatures continue to rise, our atmosphere clouds with carbon dioxide and methane

release, and our planet is slowly strangled by the vise grip of anthropogenic activity, efforts must

be focused on whether or not this new time period will be officially recognized.

So far, no official consensus has been reached on the formality or the start date of the

Anthropocene, but it is apparent that somewhere along the way, humankind’s activities gave rise

to a new anthropocentric era. Experts have concluded that while the term “Anthropocene” is here

to stay, that it might continue to be used informally in order to avoid the limitation of a rigidly

defined term while recognizing humanity’s environmental modifications of the earth (Head,

2015). No matter the formality of the epoch, it remains that the Anthropocene brings awareness

that, through human-caused climate change, the anthropogenic effect on the planet is worldwide,

and that humanity’s actions may have started a series of events that will vastly alter the earth’s

surface, atmosphere, and oceans.

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