Anthropocene
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GC: n 

CT: Over the past century, the total material wealth of humanity has been enhanced. However, in the twenty-first century, we face scarcity in critical resources, the degradation of ecosystem services, and the erosion of the planet’s capability to absorb our wastes. Equity issues remain stubbornly difficult to solve. This situation is novel in its speed, its global scale and its threat to the resilience of the Earth System. The advent of the Anthropocene, the time interval in which human activities now rival global geophysical processes, suggests that we need to fundamentally alter our relationship with the planet we inhabit. Many approaches could be adopted, ranging from geo-engineering solutions that purposefully manipulate parts of the Earth System to becoming active stewards of our own life support system. The Anthropocene is a reminder that the Holocene, during which complex human societies have developed, has been a stable, accommodating environment and is the only state of the Earth System that we know for sure can support contemporary society. The need to achieve effective planetary stewardship is urgent. As we go further into the Anthropocene, we risk driving the Earth System onto a trajectory toward more hostile states from which we cannot easily return.

S: NIH (last access: 2 February 2026)

N: 1. Anthropocene, as noun. From “anthropo-” + “-cene”.
A proposed “age of humans” to be added to the geological time scale and dating roughly from mid-20c., by 1996, based on Holocene, etc.

Anthropocene, as adjective.
Relating or referring to the most recent period in the earth’s history, human activities have a very important effect on the earth’s environment and climate.

  • Anthropocene (noun & adjective) is formed within English, by compounding.Etymons: anthropo- comb. form, ‑cene comb. form.
  • The earliest known use of the word Anthropocene is in the 2000s.OED’s earliest evidence for Anthropocene is from 2000, in a text by P. J. Crutzen and E. F. Stoermer.

2. The period of time during which human activities have had an environmental impact on the Earth regarded as constituting a distinct geological time interval.  

  • The name was formally proposed by the Dutch chemist Paul J. Crutzen and the American biologist Eugene F. Stoermer in “The ‘Anthropocene’,” Global Change Newsletter (newsletter of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme, International Council for Science), No. 41 (May, 2000), pp. 17-18. According to his own recollection, Stoermer employed the word earlier (“I began using the term ‘anthropocene’ in the 1980s, but never formalized it until Paul [Crutzen] contacted me.” —J. Grinevald, La Biosphère de l’Anthropocène [Geneva, 2007], p. 243, cited in Will Steffen, et al., “The Anthropocene: conceptual and historical perspectives,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A, vol. 369 [2011], p. 843). 

3. Originating in the Earth Sciences, the term is now widely used across academia and public debate.It describes major human-driven phenomena such as climate change and mass extinction.Anthropologists also analyze it as a concept with strong political and moral implications. It identifies four main anthropological approaches to the Anthropocene, those that:  

  • The Anthropocene as a context for or backdrop to ethnographic inquiry. 
  • The Anthropocene as a socially and politically constructed idea. 
  • Treatment of the Anthropocene as an opportunity for creativity and hopeful speculation.  
  • The Anthropocene as the outcome of long-standing global political and socio-economic inequalities. 

4. Chronology: Anthropocene.

  • The current geological epoch that began in the mid-20th century, during which human activity is the dominant influence on the environment and the Earth’s climate.

5. Cultural Interrelation: We can mention the documentary film Anthropocene: The Human Epoch (2018), from the multiple-award winning team of Jennifer Baichwal, Nicholas de Pencier and Edward Burtynsky.

S: 1. CD (last access: 2 February 2026); Etymonline (last access: 2 February 2026); OED (last access: 2 February 2026). 2. MW (last access: 30 January 2026). 3. Anthropedia (last access: 30 January 2026). 4. TERMIUM PLUS  (last access: 30 January 2026). 5. BGS (last access: 2 February 2026). 

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CR: ecological footprint, environmental sustainability, technofossil.