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82-466: Human World may refer to: Anthropocene , a proposed geological epoch Human World (political party) , a minor German political party Human World Tour , a solo concert tour by American recording artist, Brandy Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Human World . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change

164-730: A geological epoch distinct from the Holocene. The Anthropocene Working Group met in Oslo in April 2016 to consolidate evidence supporting the argument for the Anthropocene as a true geologic epoch. Evidence was evaluated and the group voted to recommend Anthropocene as the new geological epoch in August 2016. In April 2019, the Anthropocene Working Group (AWG) announced that they would vote on

246-434: A depositional regime, engineered structures will tend to be buried and preserved, along with litter and debris. Litter and debris thrown from boats or carried by rivers and creeks will accumulate in the marine environment, particularly in coastal areas, but also in mid-ocean garbage patches . Such human-created artifacts preserved in stratigraphy are known as "technofossils". Changes in biodiversity will also be reflected in

328-647: A dramatic rate. The Atomic Age also started around the mid-20th century, when the risks of nuclear wars , nuclear terrorism and nuclear accidents increased. Twelve candidate sites were selected for the GSSP; the sediments of Crawford Lake , Canada were finally proposed, in July 2023, to mark the lower boundary of the Anthropocene, starting with the Crawfordian stage/age in 1950. In March 2024, after 15 years of deliberation,

410-547: A formal proposal to the International Commission on Stratigraphy , to continue the process started at the 2016 meeting. In May 2019, 29 members of the 34 person AWG panel voted in favour of an official proposal to be made by 2021. The AWG also voted with 29 votes in favour of a starting date in the mid 20th century. Ten candidate sites for a Global boundary Stratotype Section and Point have been identified, one of which will be chosen to be included in

492-603: A formal unit of the Geologic Time Scale, Anthropocene will nevertheless continue to be used not only by Earth and environmental scientists, but also by social scientists, politicians and economists, as well as by the public at large. It will remain an invaluable descriptor of human impact on the Earth system." An early concept for the Anthropocene was the Noosphere by Vladimir Vernadsky , who in 1938 wrote of "scientific thought as

574-610: A geological force". Scientists in the Soviet Union appear to have used the term Anthropocene as early as the 1960s to refer to the Quaternary , the most recent geological period . Ecologist Eugene F. Stoermer subsequently used Anthropocene with a different sense in the 1980s and the term was widely popularised in 2000 by atmospheric chemist Paul J. Crutzen , who regards the influence of human behavior on Earth's atmosphere in recent centuries as so significant as to constitute

656-430: A key marker the group chose to place the start of the Anthropocene in the 1950s, along with other elevated markers including carbon particles and nitrates from the burning of fossil fuels and widespread application of chemical fertilizers respectively. Had it been approved, the official declaration of the new Anthropocene epoch would have taken place in August 2024, and its first age may have been named Crawfordian after

738-431: A new geological epoch. The pressures we exert on the planet have become so great that scientists are considering whether the Earth has entered an entirely new geological epoch: the Anthropocene, or the age of humans. It means that we are the first people to live in an age defined by human choice, in which the dominant risk to our survival is ourselves. — Achim Steiner , UNDP Administrator The term Anthropocene

820-419: A precise date of start to highly diachronous processes of human-influenced Earth system change. The argument indicated that finding a single GSSP would be impractical, given human-induced changes in the Earth system occurred at different periods, in different places, and spread under different rates. Under this model, the Anthropocene would have many events marking human-induced impacts on the planet, including

902-410: A range of activities around the world that seek to ameliorate these issues or prevent them from happening. Changes in drainage patterns traceable to human activity will persist over geologic time in large parts of the continents where the geologic regime is erosional. This involves, for example, the paths of roads and highways defined by their grading and drainage control. Direct changes to the form of

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984-451: A sufficiently small time interval: A positive growth rate indicates that the population is increasing, while a negative growth rate indicates that the population is decreasing. A growth ratio of zero indicates that there were the same number of individuals at the beginning and end of the period—a growth rate may be zero even when there are significant changes in the birth rates , death rates , immigration rates , and age distribution between

1066-469: Is a decrease or disappearance of species in a specific area. Biodiversity loss means that there is a reduction in biological diversity in a given area. The decrease can be temporary or permanent. It is temporary if the damage that led to the loss is reversible in time, for example through ecological restoration . If this is not possible, then the decrease is permanent. The cause of most of the biodiversity loss is, generally speaking, human activities that push

1148-469: Is a separable differential equation, the population may be solved explicitly, producing a logistic function : where A = K − P 0 P 0 {\displaystyle A={\frac {K-P_{0}}{P_{0}}}} and P 0 {\displaystyle P_{0}} is the initial population at time 0. The world population growth rate peaked in 1963 at 2.2% per year and subsequently declined. In 2017,

1230-510: Is because the widely-adopted 1950 start date was found to be prone to recency bias. It also overshadowed earlier examples of human impacts, many of which happened in different parts of the world at different times. Although the proposal could be raised again, this would require the entire process of debate to start from the beginning. The results of the vote were officially confirmed by the IUGS and upheld as definitive later that month. Crutzen proposed

1312-452: Is in direct contrast with less developed contexts, where population growth is still happening. Globally, the rate of population growth has declined from a peak of 2.2% per year in 1963. Population growth alongside increased consumption is a driver of environmental concerns , such as biodiversity loss and climate change , due to overexploitation of natural resources for human development . International policy focused on mitigating

1394-437: Is increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) content. This signal in the Earth's climate system is especially significant because it is occurring much faster, and to a greater extent, than previously. Most of this increase is due to the combustion of fossil fuels such as coal, oil , and gas . Effects of climate change are well documented and growing for Earth's natural environment and human societies. Changes to

1476-501: Is informally used in scientific contexts. The Geological Society of America entitled its 2011 annual meeting: Archean to Anthropocene: The past is the key to the future . The new epoch has no agreed start-date, but one proposal, based on atmospheric evidence, is to fix the start with the Industrial Revolution c. 1780, with the invention of the steam engine . Other scientists link the new term to earlier events, such as

1558-575: Is now firmly established as the sixth factor of soil formation. Humanity affects pedogenesis directly by, for example, land levelling, trenching and embankment building, landscape-scale control of fire by early humans , organic matter enrichment from additions of manure or other waste, organic matter impoverishment due to continued cultivation and compaction from overgrazing . Human activity also affects pedogenesis indirectly by drift of eroded materials or pollutants. Anthropogenic soils are those markedly affected by human activities, such as repeated ploughing,

1640-402: Is the rate at which the number of individuals in a population increases in a given time period, expressed as a fraction of the initial population. Specifically, population growth rate refers to the change in population over a unit time period, often expressed as a percentage of the number of individuals in the population at the beginning of that period. This can be written as the formula, valid for

1722-506: The DRC are witnessing a similar growth in population. The following table gives some example countries or territories: Human population projections are attempts to extrapolate how human populations will change in the future. These projections are an important input to forecasts of the population's impact on this planet and humanity's future well-being. Models of population growth take trends in human development and apply projections into

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1804-698: The International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) rejected the Anthropocene Epoch proposal for inclusion in the Geologic Time Scale . The Anthropocene Working Group (AWG) of the Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy (SQS) of the ICS voted in April 2016 to proceed towards a formal golden spike (GSSP) proposal to define the Anthropocene epoch in the geologic time scale . The group presented

1886-547: The Upper Fremont Glacier in Wyoming, there is a layer of chlorine present in ice cores from 1960's atomic weapon testing programs, as well as a layer of mercury associated with coal plants in the 1980s. From the late 1940s, nuclear tests have led to local nuclear fallout and severe contamination of test sites both on land and in the surrounding marine environment. Some of the radionuclides that were released during

1968-418: The climate system include an overall warming trend , changes to precipitation patterns , and more extreme weather . As the climate changes it impacts the natural environment with effects such as more intense forest fires , thawing permafrost , and desertification . These changes impact ecosystems and societies, and can become irreversible once tipping points are crossed. Climate activists are engaged in

2050-584: The first atomic bomb in 1945 or the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty in 1963). The name Anthropocene is a combination of anthropo- from the Ancient Greek ἄνθρωπος ( ánthropos ) meaning 'human' and -cene from καινός ( kainós ) meaning 'new' or 'recent'. As early as 1873, the Italian geologist Antonio Stoppani acknowledged the increasing power and effect of humanity on

2132-516: The global population to increase from 1.6 billion in 1900 to 7.7 billion by November 2019. Some of the reasons for the "Modern Rise of Population" were particularly investigated by the British health scientist Thomas McKeown (1912–1988). In his publications, McKeown challenged four theories about the population growth: Although the McKeown thesis has been heavily disputed, recent studies have confirmed

2214-511: The industrial revolution . The most significant increase in the world's population has been since the 1950s, mainly due to medical advancements and increases in agricultural productivity . Due to its dramatic impact on the human ability to grow food, the Haber process , named after one of its inventors, the German chemist Fritz Haber , served as the "detonator of the population explosion ", enabling

2296-647: The mass extinction of large vertebrates , the development of early farming , land clearance in the Americas, global-scale industrial transformation during the Industrial Revolution , and the start of the Atomic Age . The authors are members of the AWG who had voted against the official proposal of a starting date in the mid-20th century, and sought to reconcile some of the previous models (including Ruddiman and Maslin proposals). They cited Crutzen 's original concept, arguing that

2378-631: The planetary boundaries too far. These activities include habitat destruction (for example deforestation ) and land use intensification (for example monoculture farming). Further problem areas are air and water pollution (including nutrient pollution ), over-exploitation , invasive species and climate change . Studies of urban evolution give an indication of how species may respond to stressors such as temperature change and toxicity. Species display varying abilities to respond to altered environments through both phenotypic plasticity and genetic evolution . Researchers have documented

2460-497: The population is declining , especially in Eastern Europe , mainly due to low fertility rates , high death rates and emigration . In Southern Africa , growth is slowing due to the high number of AIDS-related deaths. Some Western Europe countries might also experience population decline. Japan's population began decreasing in 2005. The United Nations Population Division projects world population to reach 11.2 billion by

2542-709: The 2021 Economics of Biodiversity review, written by Partha Dasgupta and published by the UK government, "biodiversity is declining faster than at any time in human history." A 2022 scientific review published in Biological Reviews confirms that an anthropogenic sixth mass extinction event is currently underway. A 2022 study published in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment , which surveyed more than 3,000 experts, states that

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2624-470: The Anthropocene Epoch proposal of the AWG was voted down by a wide margin by the SQS, owing largely to its shallow sedimentary record and extremely recent proposed start date. The ICS and the IUGS later formally confirmed, by a near unanimous vote, the rejection of the AWG's Anthropocene Epoch proposal for inclusion in the Geologic Time Scale. The IUGS statement on the rejection concluded: "Despite its rejection as

2706-472: The Anthropocene have been proposed, ranging from the beginning of the Neolithic Revolution (12,000–15,000 years ago), to as recently as the 1960s. The biologist Eugene F. Stoermer is credited with first coining and using the term anthropocene informally in the 1980s; Paul J. Crutzen re-invented and popularized the term. However, in 2024 the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) and

2788-517: The Anthropocene is much better and more usefully conceived of as an unfolding geological event, like other major transformations in Earth's history such as the Great Oxidation Event . In July 2023, the AWG chose Crawford Lake in Ontario, Canada as a site representing the beginning of the proposed new epoch. The sediment in that lake shows a spike in levels of plutonium from hydrogen bomb tests,

2870-648: The Anthropocene should be extended back many thousand years"; this would make the Anthropocene essentially synonymous with the current term, Holocene . In 2008, the Stratigraphy Commission of the Geological Society of London considered a proposal to make the Anthropocene a formal unit of geological epoch divisions. A majority of the commission decided the proposal had merit and should be examined further. Independent working groups of scientists from various geological societies began to determine whether

2952-609: The Anthropocene will be formally accepted into the Geological Time Scale . In January 2015, 26 of the 38 members of the International Anthropocene Working Group published a paper suggesting the Trinity test on 16 July 1945 as the starting point of the proposed new epoch. However, a significant minority supported one of several alternative dates. A March 2015 report suggested either 1610 or 1964 as

3034-547: The Earth System has departed from its Holocene state since c. 1950 CE, forcing abrupt physical, chemical and biological changes to the Earth's stratigraphic record that can be used to justify the proposal for naming a new epoch—the Anthropocene." A December 2020 study published in Nature found that the total anthropogenic mass, or human-made materials, outweighs all the biomass on earth, and highlighted that "this quantification of

3116-484: The Earth's surface by human activities ( quarrying and landscaping , for example) also record human impacts. It has been suggested that the deposition of calthemite formations exemplify a natural process which has not previously occurred prior to the human modification of the Earth's surface, and which therefore represents a unique process of the Anthropocene. Calthemite is a secondary deposit, derived from concrete, lime , mortar or other calcareous material outside

3198-402: The Earth's systems and referred to an 'anthropozoic era'. The human impact on biodiversity forms one of the primary attributes of the Anthropocene. Humankind has entered what is sometimes called the Earth's sixth major extinction. Most experts agree that human activities have accelerated the rate of species extinction. The exact rate remains controversial – perhaps 100 to 1000 times

3280-581: The Industrial Revolution as the start of Anthropocene. Lovelock proposes that the Anthropocene began with the first application of the Newcomen atmospheric engine in 1712. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change takes the pre-industrial era (chosen as the year 1750) as the baseline related to changes in long-lived, well mixed greenhouse gases. Although it is apparent that the Industrial Revolution ushered in an unprecedented global human impact on

3362-712: The Royal Society B , Rodolfo Dirzo , Gerardo Ceballos, and Paul R. Ehrlich write that the term is "increasingly penetrating the lexicon of not only the academic socio-sphere, but also society more generally", and is now included as an entry in the Oxford English Dictionary . The University of Cambridge, as another example, offers a degree in Anthropocene Studies. In the public sphere, the term Anthropocene has become increasingly ubiquitous in activist, pundit, and political discourses. Some who are critical of

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3444-454: The UN projected that the world population, 8 billion as of 2023 , would peak around the year 2086 at about 10.4 billion, and then start a slow decline, assuming a continuing decrease in the global average fertility rate from 2.5 births per woman during the 2015–2020 period to 1.8 by the year 2100 (the medium-variant projection). The UN’s 2024 report has revised the peak population to 10.3 billion in

3526-476: The addition of fertilisers, contamination, sealing, or enrichment with artefacts (in the World Reference Base for Soil Resources they are classified as Anthrosols and Technosols ). An example from archaeology would be dark earth phenomena when long-term human habitation enriches the soil with black carbon . Anthropogenic soils are recalcitrant repositories of artefacts and properties that testify to

3608-399: The atmospheric CO 2 , and infiltrating the biosphere , through ocean-atmosphere gas exchange . Increase in thyroid cancer rates around the world is also surmised to be correlated with increasing proportions of the I radionuclide. The highest global concentration of radionuclides was estimated to have been in 1965, one of the dates which has been proposed as a possible benchmark for

3690-441: The beginning of the Anthropocene. Other scholars pointed to the diachronous character of the physical strata of the Anthropocene, arguing that onset and impact are spread out over time, not reducible to a single instant or date of start. A January 2016 report on the climatic, biological, and geochemical signatures of human activity in sediments and ice cores suggested the era since the mid-20th century should be recognised as

3772-414: The cave environment . Calthemites grow on or under man-made structures (including mines and tunnels) and mimic the shapes and forms of cave speleothems , such as stalactites , stalagmites , flowstone etc . Human activities like deforestation and road construction are believed to have elevated average total sediment fluxes across the Earth's surface. However, construction of dams on many rivers around

3854-544: The dominance of the human impact, and hence appear to be reliable markers for the Anthropocene. Some anthropogenic soils may be viewed as the 'golden spikes' of geologists ( Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point ), which are locations where there are strata successions with clear evidences of a worldwide event, including the appearance of distinctive fossils. Drilling for fossil fuels has also created holes and tubes which are expected to be detectable for millions of years. The astrobiologist David Grinspoon has proposed that

3936-476: The end of the Black Death , around the year 1350. A mix of technological advancement that improved agricultural productivity and sanitation and medical advancement that reduced mortality increased population growth. In some geographies, this has slowed through the process called the demographic transition , where many nations with high standards of living have seen a significant slowing of population growth. This

4018-522: The end of the 21st century. The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation projects that the global population will peak in 2064 at 9.73 billion and decline to 8.89 billion in 2100. A 2014 study in Science concludes that the global population will reach 11 billion by 2100, with a 70% chance of continued growth into the 22nd century. The German Foundation for World Population reported in December 2019 that

4100-565: The entire Black Sea may have changed during the last 2000 years as a result of nutrient and silica input from eroding deforested lands along the Danube River . Researchers have found that the growth of the human population and expansion of human activity has resulted in many species of animals that are normally active during the day, such as elephants, tigers and boars, becoming nocturnal to avoid contact with humans, who are largely diurnal. One geological symptom resulting from human activity

4182-477: The estimated annual growth rate was 1.1%. The CIA World Factbook gives the world annual birthrate, mortality rate, and growth rate as 1.86%, 0.78%, and 1.08% respectively. The last 100 years have seen a massive fourfold increase in the population, due to medical advances , lower mortality rates, and an increase in agricultural productivity made possible by the Green Revolution . The annual increase in

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4264-505: The extinction crisis could be worse than previously thought, and estimates that roughly 30% of species "have been globally threatened or driven extinct since the year 1500." According to a 2023 study published in Biological Reviews some 48% of 70,000 monitored species are experiencing population declines from human activity, whereas only 3% have increasing populations. Biodiversity loss happens when plant or animal species disappear completely from Earth ( extinction ) or when there

4346-426: The final proposal. Possible markers include microplastics , heavy metals , or radioactive nuclei left by tests from thermonuclear weapons . In November 2021, an alternative proposal that the Anthropocene is a geological event , not an epoch, was published and later expanded in 2022. This challenged the assumption underlying the case for the Anthropocene epoch - the idea that it is possible to accurately assign

4428-529: The fossil record, as will species introductions. An example cited is the domestic chicken, originally the red junglefowl Gallus gallus , native to south-east Asia but has since become the world's most common bird through human breeding and consumption, with over 60 billion consumed annually and whose bones would become fossilised in landfill sites. Hence, landfills are important resources to find "technofossils". In terms of trace elements, there are distinct signatures left by modern societies. For example, in

4510-607: The future. These models use trend-based-assumptions about how populations will respond to economic, social and technological forces to understand how they will affect fertility and mortality , and thus population growth. The 2022 projections from the United Nations Population Division (chart #1) show that annual world population growth peaked at 2.3% per year in 1963, has since dropped to 0.9% in 2023, equivalent to about 74 million people each year, and could drop even further to minus 0.1% by 2100. Based on this,

4592-479: The geologic record." The official start-dates, according to the panel, would coincide with either the radionuclides released into the atmosphere from bomb detonations in 1945, or with the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty of 1963. The peak in radionuclides fallout consequential to atomic bomb testing during the 1950s is another possible date for the beginning of the Anthropocene (the detonation of

4674-561: The global human population grows by 2.6 people every second, and could reach 8 billion by 2023. According to United Nations population statistics, the world population grew by 30%, or 1.6 billion humans, between 1990 and 2010. In number of people the increase was highest in India (350 million) and China (196 million). Population growth rate was among highest in the United Arab Emirates (315%) and Qatar (271%). Many of

4756-454: The human enterprise gives a mass-based quantitative and symbolic characterization of the human-induced epoch of the Anthropocene." Although the validity of Anthropocene as a scientific term remains disputed, its underlying premise, i.e., that humans have become a geological force, or rather, the dominant force shaping the Earth's climate, has found traction among academics and the public. In an opinion piece for Philosophical Transactions of

4838-531: The impact of human population growth is concentrated in the Sustainable Development Goals which seeks to improve the standard of living globally while reducing the impact of society on the environment while advancing human well-being. World population has been rising continuously since the end of the Black Death , around the year 1350. Population began growing rapidly in the Western world during

4920-505: The lake. In March 2024, the New York Times reported on the results of an internal vote held by the IUGS : After nearly 15 years of debate, the proposal to ratify the Anthropocene had been defeated by a 12-to-4 margin, with 2 abstentions. These results were not out of a dismissal of human impact on the planet, but rather an inability to constrain the Anthropocene in a geological context. This

5002-415: The link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Human_World&oldid=1235859378 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Anthropocene The Anthropocene is a now rejected proposal for

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5084-457: The movement of many species into regions formerly too cold for them, often at rates faster than initially expected. Permanent changes in the distribution of organisms from human influence will become identifiable in the geologic record . This has occurred in part as a result of changing climate, but also in response to farming and fishing, and to the accidental introduction of non-native species to new areas through global travel. The ecosystem of

5166-607: The name of a geological epoch that would follow the Holocene , dating from the commencement of significant human impact on Earth up to the present day. It was rejected in 2024 by the International Commission on Stratigraphy in terms of being a defined geologic period . The impacts of humans affect Earth's oceans , geology , geomorphology , landscape , limnology , hydrology , ecosystems and climate . The effects of human activities on Earth can be seen for example in biodiversity loss and climate change . Various start dates for

5248-448: The normal background rate of extinction. Anthropogenic extinctions started as humans migrated out of Africa over 60,000 years ago. Increases in global rates of extinction have been elevated above background rates since at least 1500, and appear to have accelerated in the 19th century and further since. Rapid economic growth is considered a primary driver of the contemporary displacement and eradication of other species. According to

5330-671: The number of living humans peaked at 88.0 million in 1989, then slowly declined to 73.9 million in 2003, after which it rose again to 75.2 million in 2006. In 2017, the human population increased by 83 million. Generally, developed nations have seen a decline in their growth rates in recent decades, though annual growth rates remain above 2% in some countries of the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa , and also in South Asia , Southeast Asia , and Latin America . In some countries

5412-452: The ocean due to dams, reservoirs and diversions. Humans have produced so many millions of tons of plastic each year since the early 1950s that microplastics are "forming a near-ubiquitous and unambiguous marker of Anthropocene". The study highlights a strong correlation between global human population size and growth, global productivity and global energy use and that the "extraordinary outburst of consumption and productivity demonstrates how

5494-476: The planet, much of Earth's landscape already had been profoundly modified by human activities. The human impact on Earth has grown progressively, with few substantial slowdowns. A 2024 scientific perspective paper authored by a group of scientists led by William J. Ripple proposed the start of the Anthropocene around 1850, stating it is a "compelling choice . . . from a population, fossil fuel, greenhouse gasses, temperature, and land use perspective." In May 2019

5576-439: The population has reached its carrying capacity , it will stabilize and the exponential curve will level off towards the carrying capacity, which is usually when a population has depleted most its natural resources . In the world human population, growth may be said to have been following a linear trend throughout the last few decades. The growth of a population can often be modelled by the logistic equation where As it

5658-602: The proposal to the International Geological Congress in August 2016. In May 2019, the AWG voted in favour of submitting a formal proposal to the ICS by 2021. The proposal located potential stratigraphic markers to the mid-20th century. This time period coincides with the start of the Great Acceleration , a post- World War II time period during which global population growth , pollution and exploitation of natural resources have all increased at

5740-567: The rise of agriculture and the Neolithic Revolution (around 12,000 years BP ). Evidence of relative human impact – such as the growing human influence on land use, ecosystems, biodiversity , and species extinction – is substantial; scientists think that human impact has significantly changed (or halted) the growth of biodiversity. Those arguing for earlier dates posit that the proposed Anthropocene may have begun as early as 14,000–15,000 years BP , based on geologic evidence; this has led other scientists to suggest that "the onset of

5822-497: The site of the Apollo ;11 Lunar landing, with the disturbances and artifacts that are so uniquely characteristic of our species' technological activity and which will survive over geological time spans could be considered as the 'golden spike' of the Anthropocene. An October 2020 study coordinated by University of Colorado at Boulder found that distinct physical, chemical and biological changes to Earth's rock layers began around

5904-429: The start of the formally defined Anthropocene. Human burning of fossil fuels has also left distinctly elevated concentrations of black carbon, inorganic ash, and spherical carbonaceous particles in recent sediments across the world. Concentrations of these components increases markedly and almost simultaneously around the world beginning around 1950. A marker that accounts for a substantial global impact of humans on

5986-448: The term Anthropocene nevertheless concede that "For all its problems, [it] carries power." The popularity and currency of the word has led scholars to label the term a "charismatic meta-category" or "charismatic mega-concept." The term, regardless, has been subject to a variety of criticisms from social scientists, philosophers, Indigenous scholars, and others. Population growth The world human population has been growing since

6068-427: The tests are Cs , Sr , Pu , Pu , Am , and I . These have been found to have had significant impact on the environment and on human beings. In particular, Cs and Sr have been found to have been released into the marine environment and led to bioaccumulation over a period through food chain cycles. The carbon isotope C , commonly released during nuclear tests, has also been found to be integrated into

6150-408: The total environment, comparable in scale to those associated with significant perturbations of the geological past, is needed in place of minor changes in atmosphere composition. A useful candidate for holding markers in the geologic time record is the pedosphere . Soils retain information about their climatic and geochemical history with features lasting for centuries or millennia. Human activity

6232-564: The twenty-nine members of the Anthropocene Working Group (AWG) proposed a start date for the Epoch in the mid-20th century, as that period saw "a rapidly rising human population accelerated the pace of industrial production, the use of agricultural chemicals and other human activities. At the same time, the first atomic-bomb blasts littered the globe with radioactive debris that became embedded in sediments and glacial ice, becoming part of

6314-411: The two times. A related measure is the net reproduction rate . In the absence of migration, a net reproduction rate of more than 1 indicates that the population of females is increasing, while a net reproduction rate less than one ( sub-replacement fertility ) indicates that the population of females is decreasing. Most populations do not grow exponentially, rather they follow a logistic model . Once

6396-406: The value of his ideas. His work is pivotal for present day thinking about population growth, birth control, public health and medical care. McKeown had a major influence on many population researchers, such as health economists and Nobel prize winners Robert W. Fogel (1993) and Angus Deaton (2015). The latter considered McKeown as "the founder of social medicine ". The "population growth rate"

6478-490: The world means the rates of sediment deposition in any given place do not always appear to increase in the Anthropocene. For instance, many river deltas around the world are actually currently starved of sediment by such dams, and are subsiding and failing to keep up with sea level rise, rather than growing. Increases in erosion due to farming and other operations will be reflected by changes in sediment composition and increases in deposition rates elsewhere. In land areas with

6560-680: The world's countries, including many in Sub-Saharan Africa , the Middle East , South Asia and South East Asia , have seen a sharp rise in population since the end of the Cold War . The fear is that high population numbers are putting further strain on natural resources, food supplies, fuel supplies, employment, housing, etc. in some of the less fortunate countries. For example, the population of Chad has ultimately grown from 6,279,921 in 1993 to 10,329,208 in 2009, further straining its resources. Vietnam , Mexico , Nigeria , Egypt , Ethiopia , and

6642-553: The year 1950. The research revealed that since about 1950, humans have doubled the amount of fixed nitrogen on the planet through industrial production for agriculture, created a hole in the ozone layer through the industrial scale release of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), released enough greenhouse gasses from fossil fuels to cause planetary level climate change , created tens of thousands of synthetic mineral-like compounds that do not naturally occur on Earth, and caused almost one-fifth of river sediment worldwide to no longer reach

6724-572: The year 2084. However, estimates outside of the United Nations have put forward alternative models based on additional downward pressure on fertility (such as successful implementation of education and family planning goals in the UN's Sustainable Development Goals ) which could result in peak population during the 2060–2070 period rather than later. Even though the global fertility rate continues to fall, chart #2 shows that because of population momentum

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