ABSTRACT
General scientific agreement is that human activity has been a geologically recent, yet profound, influence on the Earth System; suggesting that we should refer to the present, not as within the Holocene Epoch, but instead as within the Anthropocene Epoch. Considerable debate exists about how to define the Anthropocene, particularly when it began, ranging from tens of thousands of years to a few decades ago. This more wide-spread recognition that human actions are driving far-reaching changes to the life-supporting infrastructure of Earth will have implications for our philosophical, social, economic and political views of our environment.
