Le Geoscienze e le sfide del XXI secolo
Padova, 16-18 settembre 2025
Plenarist Abstracts
The Anthropocene: geological signals of planetary change
Jan Zalasiewicz
School of Geography, Geology and the Environment, University of Leicester, UK
Jan Zalasiewicz
School of Geography, Geology and the Environment, University of Leicester, UK
Human civilization has developed amid the relatively stability of climate and sea level, and the diverse biosphere of, the 11.7 millenia of the Holocene Epoch: the latest of many interglacial phases of the Quaternary Ice Age, and the one that shaped the world we live in.
The growth of industrialized human civilization, especially since the mid-20th century, has now put that stability into question. With the accompanying sharp rise in human numbers, energy use, technological production and globalization, have come sharp and large-scale changes to landscape, biosphere and climate. These unprecedented changes have led to the suggestion that we are now living through the beginning of a new epoch, the Anthropocene: an interval of geological time dominated by overwhelming human impacts. The term was proposed little more than two decades ago by Paul Crutzen, the Nobel Prize-winning atmospheric chemist (Crutzen 2002), and has since been widely used – and sharply debated.
Formalization of the Anthropocene on the Geological Time Scale was proposed by the Anthropocene Working Group (Waters et al. 2024) though subsequently rejected by the International Commission on Stratigraphy. But the term and concept continue to be used (Zalasiewicz et al. 2024) and its processes are, in reality, changing the geology of our planet, bringing in changes that are significant in a deep time perspective (Syvitski et al. 2020). These include physical changes most strikingly represented by the explosive growth of the 'urban stratum': the refashioning of sand, clay and limestone into our buildings, foundations and transport systems. Biological changes include the ongoing mass extinction event and the effect of invasive species, while human-made 'anthroturbation' is as extraordinary as anything in the fossil record. Chemical changes include the reshaping of the Earth's natural carbon, phosphorus and nitrogen cycles, with their associated climate and biological impacts. Indeed, some of the planetary developments, such as the rapid growth of the technosphere – inter alia to now outweigh the biosphere – are wholly new within Earth's 4.5 billion-year history.
The combined transformation is of a scale to leave a signal, in strata now forming, that will persist for many millions of years, and that have already taken the planet outside of the baseline conditions of the Holocene Epoch, and in several respects out of those of the Quaternary Ice Ages as a whole. The continuing, rapidly growing departure from Holocene conditions means the Anthropocene cannot help but remain a key concept for present and future generations of geoscientists, and more widely for interdisciplinary study of an Earth System undergoing transition.
Crutzen P. J. (2002) – Geology of mankind. Nature, 415, 23, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-27460-7_10.
Syvitski J. et al. (2020) – Extraordinary human energy consumption and resultant geological impacts beginning around 1950 CE initiated the proposed Anthropocene Epoch. Commun. Earth Environ., 1, 32, https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-020-00029-y.
Waters C.N. et al. (2024) – Executive Summary. The Anthropocene Epoch and Crawfordian Age: proposals by the Anthropocene Working Group. EarthArXiv, https://doi.org/10.31223/X5VH70.
Zalasiewicz J. et al. (2024) – What should the Anthropocene mean? Nature, 632, 980–984.
The growth of industrialized human civilization, especially since the mid-20th century, has now put that stability into question. With the accompanying sharp rise in human numbers, energy use, technological production and globalization, have come sharp and large-scale changes to landscape, biosphere and climate. These unprecedented changes have led to the suggestion that we are now living through the beginning of a new epoch, the Anthropocene: an interval of geological time dominated by overwhelming human impacts. The term was proposed little more than two decades ago by Paul Crutzen, the Nobel Prize-winning atmospheric chemist (Crutzen 2002), and has since been widely used – and sharply debated.
Formalization of the Anthropocene on the Geological Time Scale was proposed by the Anthropocene Working Group (Waters et al. 2024) though subsequently rejected by the International Commission on Stratigraphy. But the term and concept continue to be used (Zalasiewicz et al. 2024) and its processes are, in reality, changing the geology of our planet, bringing in changes that are significant in a deep time perspective (Syvitski et al. 2020). These include physical changes most strikingly represented by the explosive growth of the 'urban stratum': the refashioning of sand, clay and limestone into our buildings, foundations and transport systems. Biological changes include the ongoing mass extinction event and the effect of invasive species, while human-made 'anthroturbation' is as extraordinary as anything in the fossil record. Chemical changes include the reshaping of the Earth's natural carbon, phosphorus and nitrogen cycles, with their associated climate and biological impacts. Indeed, some of the planetary developments, such as the rapid growth of the technosphere – inter alia to now outweigh the biosphere – are wholly new within Earth's 4.5 billion-year history.
The combined transformation is of a scale to leave a signal, in strata now forming, that will persist for many millions of years, and that have already taken the planet outside of the baseline conditions of the Holocene Epoch, and in several respects out of those of the Quaternary Ice Ages as a whole. The continuing, rapidly growing departure from Holocene conditions means the Anthropocene cannot help but remain a key concept for present and future generations of geoscientists, and more widely for interdisciplinary study of an Earth System undergoing transition.
Crutzen P. J. (2002) – Geology of mankind. Nature, 415, 23, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-27460-7_10.
Syvitski J. et al. (2020) – Extraordinary human energy consumption and resultant geological impacts beginning around 1950 CE initiated the proposed Anthropocene Epoch. Commun. Earth Environ., 1, 32, https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-020-00029-y.
Waters C.N. et al. (2024) – Executive Summary. The Anthropocene Epoch and Crawfordian Age: proposals by the Anthropocene Working Group. EarthArXiv, https://doi.org/10.31223/X5VH70.
Zalasiewicz J. et al. (2024) – What should the Anthropocene mean? Nature, 632, 980–984.
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