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
The mushroom cloud of the first test of a hydrogen bomb, "Ivy Mike" looms over the Pacific Ocean in 1952.

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.