Crawford Lake in Milton, Ontario, may soon become the symbolic starting point for a new chapter in Earth’s official history: the Anthropocene, or the age of humans. A group of scientists from the Anthropocene Working Group announced on Tuesday that the lake contains the best evidence for humanity’s overwhelming impact on the planet. The lake’s finely layered sediments provide a thousand-year record of environmental history, with a significant increase in man-made disruption around the middle of the 20th century. This is when human activities such as nuclear weapons tests, fossil fuel combustion, deforestation, and global trade began to leave a lasting imprint on Earth’s geologic record.
The announcement is a crucial step in the effort to determine whether people have altered the planet enough to launch a new epoch in geologic time. The Anthropocene Working Group has been accumulating evidence since 2009, showing that Earth’s chemistry and climate are fundamentally different from the conditions of the last several thousand years. The final requirement was to identify a “golden-spike” – a spot in the geologic record that perfectly preserved the transformation humans have wrought. Crawford Lake was chosen as the golden spike candidate, and the working group recommended that the Anthropocene be established as a new epoch beginning in 1950.
Before the Anthropocene can be officially added to Earth’s timeline, the proposal must undergo scrutiny from the wider geology community. It will go before the Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy and the International Commission on Stratigraphy for review and voting. If it clears these bureaucratic hurdles, the proposal will be ratified next year at the International Geological Congress in South Korea.
Crawford Lake was selected from among 12 golden spike candidates worldwide, including Antarctica, coral reefs, a peat bog, and a polluted California bay. Each site contained evidence of a simultaneous surge in human pollution around 1950, particularly a spike in radioactive plutonium from nuclear weapons testing. Crawford Lake, however, captured the evidence for the Anthropocene better than any other site. In addition to nuclear fallout, the lake holds signs of industrial pollution, species extinctions, and global climate change. The sediments contain fly-ash particles from burning fossil fuels, and shifts in buried tree pollen indicate the forest’s response to rising temperatures.
While some scientists are skeptical about adding the Anthropocene to the geologic time scale, the evidence from Crawford Lake and other sites studied by the working group is considered undeniable. However, there are concerns about the potential political ramifications of giving the Anthropocene a strict geologic definition. Some worry that designating the mid-20th century as the starting point could trivialize human impacts before that date, while others argue that the
What evidence from Crawford Lake makes it a leading candidate for the golden spike designating the beginning of the Anthropocene epoch?
Rement for officially designating the Anthropocene will be to identify a golden spike, a specific point in the geologic record that marks the beginning of this new epoch.
Crawford Lake, located in Milton, Ontario, has now emerged as a leading candidate for this symbolic starting point. The lake’s sediment layers contain an extensive historical record of environmental changes over the past thousand years. Scientists have discovered a significant increase in human-induced disturbances around the middle of the 20th century, coinciding with activities such as nuclear weapons tests, fossil fuel combustion, deforestation, and global trade.
This finding, announced by the Anthropocene Working Group, brings us closer to establishing the Anthropocene as an official epoch in Earth’s geologic timeline. This international group of scientists has been collecting evidence since 2009, demonstrating that our planet’s chemistry and climate have undergone significant and lasting changes, unlike anything seen in the previous millennia.
However, before the Anthropocene can be recognized officially, a crucial requirement needs to be met. Scientists must identify a golden spike, a specific point in the geologic record that signifies the beginning of this new epoch. Crawford Lake’s sediments and the evidence they hold make it a prime candidate for this monumental designation.
As humanity continues to grapple with the consequences of our actions on the planet, the recognition of the Anthropocene as a distinct epoch would highlight the immense impact humans have had on Earth. It would serve as a reminder of our responsibility to address the environmental challenges we face and strive towards more sustainable practices for the future of our planet.
