Has Earth entered a new geologic epoch? Perhaps not Shutterstock/Dima Zel
Efforts to put the Anthropocene on the geological timescale have fallen at the first hurdle, shocking members of the consulting scientific body who only learned of the official decision when it was publicised. The deciding group of academics voted down the proposal 12 to 4, declining to define a new epoch based on the planetary changes brought about by humans – though it appears there may be an effort underway to annul the result.
Earth’s current epoch is the Holocene, which began about…
