2024-03-23 08:11:28
A vote without possibility of appeal
The decision “to reject the proposal of an Anthropocene epoch as a formal unit of the geological time scale is approved,” said a press release from the organization published Thursday, which news agencies became aware of on Friday. The vote dates back to March 4.
There were four votes for, 12 once morest and three abstentions, it is specified. There is no avenue of appeal, even if some members of the voting committee had expressed their doubts regarding the conduct of the vote and the regularity of the procedure.
Allegations rejected outright by the International Union of Geological Sciences, which considers that even if it does not strictly constitute a new geological epoch, the term Anthropocene will remain widely used. “It will remain an invaluable descriptor of the human impact on the Earth system,” recognized the organization, known to be uncompromising on modifications to the International Chronostratigraphic Charter.
In January 2023: The search for the limits of the Anthropocene agitates scientists
15 years of study
A sign that this impact had moved the scientific and geological community, a working group was formed in 2009 to determine to what extent humanity had or had not changed geological times, since when and what were the most emblematic signs.
In July, following nearly 15 years of study, the members of this group chose Lake Crawford, near Toronto in Canada, as the global reference site for the beginning of the Anthropocene. The stratified sediments at the bottom of this small, one-square-kilometer body of water, laden with microplastics, ash from oil and coal combustion, and fallout from nuclear bomb explosions, provide the best evidence that a new chapter of the Earth’s history has opened up, to the point of being visible in the ground, these scientists concluded.
But they already knew that a recognition of the Anthropocene by the gatekeepers of the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) was more than uncertain, with many renowned geologists believing that the technical criteria for introducing a new epoch geological were not met.
The vote took place in a subcommittee of the powerful International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS), an IUGS body responsible for developing the frieze methodically dividing the 4.6 billion years of the history of the Earth in geological eras, periods and epochs.
A Tribune: Should we really call our era the Anthropocene?
This is a “missed opportunity”
There is no disagreement that the “age of man” has brought regarding profound planetary changes, however, agrees Erle Ellis, an environmental scientist critical of the Anthropocene proposal.
But “the truth is that there is no need to establish a firm boundary. It’s just not the most important issue,” Erle Ellis, professor of geography and environmental systems at the University of Maryland, said in early March.
A blog from the University of Lausanne lists articles on the issue.
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