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In 2016, the Anthropocene Working Group (AWG) voted in favour of recognising a new geological epoch: the Anthropocene. Whether its decision will be ratified by the International Union of Geological Sciences remains to be seen, but what is certain is that our species has left numerous marks on the Earth’s systems, environment, processes and biodiversity. Although the AWG believes that the Anthropocene started during the Great Acceleration in the mid-20th century, some scientists argue that it began much earlier, when humans first began farming. The following timeline presents some of the major events associated with the Anthropocene (and the Palaeoanthropocene), as selected by Globaïa, an NGO dedicated to the promotion of planetary awareness and international partners that include the Stockholm Resilience Centre.
Palaeoanthropocene
Some scientists have suggested the use of the term Palaeoanthropocene for the period between the first, barely recognisable, anthropogenic environmental changes and the Industrial Revolution.
| -2,580,000 Appearance of Homo genus |
| -1,900,000 to 200,000 Appearance of Homo Erectus |
-100,000 Homo sapiens leave Africa and spread throughout Eurasia and Australia Migration paths of humans from Africa. Illustration: Shutterstock/Peter Hermes Furian -50,000 to -10,000 Megafauna extinction linked to human overhunting and not climate change |
| -40,000 First cave paintings (found in Indonesia) and Neanderthal extinction |
| -11,000 The origin of farming – happens more or less simultaneously across SW Asia, S America and North China. From this period of time agriculture starts to impact ecosystems, biodiversity and the cycles of nature |
| -11,000 to -9,000 Domestication of cattle, as well as dogs, goats and possibly sheep |
-9,500 First large urban settlement in Anatolia, Turkey The Neolithic City Of Catalhoyuk Catalhoyuk, described as one of the oldest known urban settlements. Image: Shutterstock -8,000 Extensive farming spreads across Europe and Asia, with large-scale ecological consequences |
| -6,500 Rice production (likely started 8,200–13,500 years ago in China) starts to have a considerable effect on the environment through the production of methane |
| -3,000 Earth’s soils begin showing signs of human wear-and-tear, including widespread phosphorus leftover from fertiliser |
1492 to 1800 Colonisation of the ‘Old’ world by the ‘New’ – causes a huge mixing of plants, animals and diseases. Carnage and epidemic brings farming to a low in the Americas, and atmospheric CO2 dip around 1610 as forests regrow. Mayans meet Spanish invaders in Central America. Illustration: Matrioshka/Shutterstock 1543 to 1687 Scientific revolution – the emergence of modern science, when developments in mathematics, physics, astronomy, biology and chemistry transform views of society and nature |
| 1678 Coal becomes a major source of energy. In 1700, five-sixths of the world’s coal was mined in Britain |
| 1712 Creation of the first commercial steam engine |
| 1760 Industrial Revolution |
| 1784 Improvements to the steam engine. Analyses of air trapped in polar ice shows the beginning of growing global concentrations of carbon dioxide and methane |
| 1804 World population reaches one billion |
| 1822 Creation of the world’s first electrical motor |
1859 First modern oil well is built, sparking the first US oil boom Oil field in Lost Hills near Bakersfield, California. Image: Shutterstock 1870 to 1910 The Second Industrial Revolution (or the Technological Revolution) – fertilisers and other chemicals, electricity, and public health further accelerate growth |
| 1909 The invention of the Haber–Bosch process means that for the first time, humans can produce nitrogen artificially. Nitrogen is an essential fertiliser and allows for greater intensification of agriculture, supporting two billion more people by some estimates |
| 1913 Ford Motor Company introduces the first moving assembly line. Ford can produce 10 million Model T cars by 1924 |
1914 to 1918 World War I – Industrialisation applied to war drives violence and destruction to unprecedented scales but also spurs technical innovation Maxim machine gun from the First World War. Image: Shutterstock 1920 Development of new chemical compounds including chlorofluorocarbons (CFC). CFCs are used widely in aerosols and refrigerators until it is discovered that CFCs destroy ozone in the upper atmosphere leading to a large ozone hole above Antarctica. CFCs are now banned and the ozone hole is expected to recover by 2100 |
| 1939 to 1945 World War II sparks a scientific arms race leading to the atomic bomb |
| 1945 On Monday 16 July 1945, US scientists detonate the world’s first nuclear bomb. Radioactive material from this and subsequent detonations have left an unmistakable trace in rocks globally |
| 1947 Start of the Cold War |
The Anthropocene
The 1950s are the proposed starting point of the Anthropocene
| 1950 The Great Acceleration – the dramatic, continuous and roughly simultaneous surge in growth rate across a large range of measures of human activity, and surge in population growth worldwide |
1960-70s Mass production of plastics Factory producing plastic bottles. Image: Shutterstock |
| 1963 Limited Test Ban Treaty – The Soviet Union, United Kingdom and the United States sign a treaty banning nuclear detonations in the atmosphere (and outer space and underwater). Radioactive carbon reaches a peak in the atmosphere |
| 2000 Paul Crutuzen and Eugene Stoermer coin the term the ‘Anthropocene’. Crutzen suggests the Industrial Revolution as the starting point, but the Anthropocene Working Group believe this date only represents regional changes to the Earth |
2012 Population reaches 7 billion |
| 2014 Atmospheric carbon reaches 400 ppm – far beyond the Holocene boundary of 280 parts per million. The last time levels reached this high consistently was anywhere from 800,000 to 15 million years ago. The world was a very different place then, with much warmer temperatures and higher sea levels |
| 2015 World leaders meet at the United Nations for a historic summit to agree the Sustainable Development Goals |
| 2016 The Anthropocene Working Group is formed and votes that a new human-driven epoch has begun. Teams begin research looking for geological evidence of this |
| 2022 Anthropocene working group vote on a location for the GSSP or ‘Golden Spike’ (TBD by December) |
