New argument puts start of Anthropocene at 1610 CE

BBC : The Anthropocene is a proposed geological era to mark the point at which humans first had a significant global effect. Officially, we are still in the Holocene , which began at the end of the last glaciation, roughly 11 500 years ago. Different moments in the past several hundred years have been put forward as the beginning of the new human-dominated era. Mark Maslin of University College London and his colleagues have now proposed that 1610 CE should be the start point for the Anthropocene because of changes in global sediments and ice. Maslin and his group say the changes were triggered after the discovery of the Americas by European explorers. As a result of European expansion, several crops moved between continents and introduced new pollens into sediments around the world. Additionally, diseases brought to the Americas killed a significant percentage of the population, which resulted in a large reduction in the amount of land being farmed and thus a huge drop in atmospheric carbon. The researchers’ proposal is a counter to a popular alternative that uses the introduction and proliferation of nuclear weapons as the demarkation point. Later this year an international working group is expected to choose an official date for the beginning of the Anthropocene.