A new study by world-renowned climate scientists says the Earth entered a new epoch around 1950, following a population boom and widespread environmental change due to increased use of concrete, aluminium, plastic, burning coal and gas and nuclear fallout.
They argue that the planet has now left the Holocene epoch that existed for the past 11,700 years — the period in which human civilisation has developed and flourished — and entered a much less stable geological epoch called the Anthropocene.
A new epoch has long been suggested, but researchers have now been able to measure the impact that human activity has had on the world when looking at geological strata like sediments and ice.
The review showed that human activity has left a permanent imprint on the planet.
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