A common sense: The Anthropocene was originally understood by Crutzen as not only representing humanity’s influence on Earth’s geological record (he was well aware of earlier anthropogenic impacts), but also reflecting a system with physical characteristics that had, since widespread industrialization, departed from the prolonged, relatively stable conditions of the Holocene. An Anthropocene concept anchored to begin in the mid-twentieth century is aligned with both the Great Acceleration and a fundamental shift in Earth’s state. Understanding the Anthropocene in this way would prevent the current confusion of the term meaning different things in different contexts. It complies with the term’s originally intended meaning, and also reflects a clear evidence-based geological signature. The concept is congruent with the term’s use in Earth-system science and more widely, such as by new and emerging institutions, such as the Center for Anthropocene Studies at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology, Daejeon, South Korea, the Centre of Excellence for Anthropocene History at Stockholm’s KTH Royal Institute of Technology and the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology in Jena, Germany. It highlights geology’s role in addressing problems of societal concern and is also applicable in the social sciences and humanities with respect to the enormous societal upheavals, changes in energy production and globalization of trade that have taken place. Policy and international law will also benefit from an unambiguous definition, putting beyond doubt that we are now in a time of transformed planetary functioning wrought by overwhelming human impacts. (The authors list above includes the 51 cosignatories, see supplement)

Zalasiewicz, J., Thomas, J.A., Waters, C.N., Turner, S…., 2024. What should the Anthropocene mean? Nature 632, 980-984. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-02712-y