Will humanity thrive in the Anthropocene as much as we have in the Holocene epoch?

Lake Crawford in Ontario, Canada, is small but deep, enabling the creation of a bottom layer of water that does not mix with the upper layers. So, for centuries, this pristine body of water has been accumulating well-defined layers of sediment that provide a historical record of changes to the environment.

Samples dated to the late 13th century were found to contain the pollen of corn and other plants cultivated by humans. And this “Earth archive” is expected to continue laying down sediments for 30,000 years before it’s filled in.

Now an international team of experts has suggested Lake Crawford as the ‘birthplace’ of the Anthropocene epoch, a new time period that geologists are thinking about declaring to reflect the extraordinary changes made by humans to planet Earth since the 1950s. For example, radiation from nuclear bombs and carbon from burning fossil fuels have spread all around the world, as quietly documented by Lake Crawford.

Whether we should welcome this new epoch or lament the passing of the Holocene, a period of relatively benign climatic conditions that has enabled modern humans to thrive, remains to be seen.

Anthropocene epoch's 'birthplace': Lake Crawford in Canada has been quietly documenting what humans have been doing to planet Earth – Scotsman comment

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