Goodbye, Anthropocene? Scientists vote against new epoch
For the past two decades, geologists have wrestled with whether humans have changed the planet enough to kick off a completely new epoch in geological time called the Anthropocene. Now, a subcommittee of Earth scientists has reportedly made a decision: No, we haven't.
![Goodbye, Anthropocene? Scientists vote against new epoch](https://i.cbc.ca/1.3393890.1681923814!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/16x9_620/mushroom-cloud-of-first-hydrogen-bomb-test.jpg)
![The mushroom cloud of the first test of a hydrogen bomb, "Ivy Mike" looms over the Pacific Ocean in 1952. Scientists propose that a new geological epoch, the Anthropocene, began in 1950, marked in rocks and sediments by the nuclear fallout from nuclear tests during the 1950s and 1960s. The mushroom cloud of the first test of a hydrogen bomb, "Ivy Mike" looms over the Pacific Ocean in 1952.](https://i.cbc.ca/1.3393890.1681923814!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/16x9_620/mushroom-cloud-of-first-hydrogen-bomb-test.jpg)
For the past two decades, geologists have wrestled with whether humans have changed the planet enough to kick off a completely new epoch in geological time called the Anthropocene. Now, a subcommittee of Earth scientists has reportedly made a decision: No, we haven't.