The Anthropocene

The only widely documented publication titled "The Anthropocene" from the year 2000 is a short essay by the atmospheric chemist Paul J. Crutzen and the ecologist Eugene F. Stoermer, published in the IGBP (International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme) Global Change Newsletter, issue 41, pages 17-18, not in Nature Magazine as the citation on file states. That essay proposed that human activity had become a significant enough geological and atmospheric force to justify naming the present a new geological epoch, the "Anthropocene," succeeding the Holocene, citing evidence such as rising greenhouse gas concentrations, land transformation and biodiversity loss. It became the founding reference for the term as it is now widely used. Because the citation on file (author "M. Chemie," Nature Magazine) does not match this or any other verifiable source, this entry describes the well-known Crutzen and Stoermer essay as the closest match to the title and year, without asserting it is definitely the exact source intended. Credits: Chemie, M. (2000). The Anthropocene. Nature Magazine.