Anthropocene: The Human Age
Anthropocene is the term coined in 2000 by Paul Crutzen, the Nobel laureate from the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, Mainz, Germany, to refer to the current geological epoch characterized by the global impact of human activity. The Anthropocene Working Group of the International Commission on Stratigraphy defines it as the present time interval, in which many geologically significant conditions and processes are profoundly altered by human activities (www.quaternary.stratigraphy.org). The conditions and processes include changes in: erosion and sediment transport associated with a variety of anthropogenic processes, including colonisation, agriculture, urbanisation and global warming; the chemical composition of the atmosphere, oceans and soils, with significant anthropogenic perturbations of the cycles of elements such as carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and various metals; environmental conditions generated by these perturbations which include global warming, ocean acidification and