# 37 researchers propose 1952 as the start of the Anthropocene epoch in a new Perspective

- Published: 2026-11-08 20:02 UTC
- Section: Planet › Earth sciences
- Tags: Anthropocene epoch, start of the Anthropocene, 1952, Great Acceleration, Holocene, Anthropocene Working Group, chronostratigraphy, planetary boundaries, extended Anthropocene
- URL: https://realtech.media/news/rt-24261f9bf09146047713a8f2_37_researchers_propose/

**Authors argue the term should denote only the epoch of global Earth system departure from the Holocene, not all human impact over tens of millennia.**

![37 researchers propose 1952 as the start of the Anthropocene epoch in a new Perspective](https://realtech.media/media/2026/11/dc65b73db582461f.jpg)
*Earth.com*

A group of 37 researchers has published a Perspective (doi.org) arguing for a stabilized definition of the Anthropocene epoch with its base at 1952. The lead author is Jan Zalasiewicz of the University of Leicester, who co-chairs the Anthropocene Working Group. Co-authors include Buhm Soon Park of KAIST, Julia Adeney Thomas of the University of Notre Dame and Jürgen Renn of the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology [1]. The piece is built on published evidence rather than a new dataset.

## Why 1952

The authors define the Anthropocene as the epoch of human-driven departure from the roughly 12-millennia-long, relatively stable conditions of the Holocene. They place its base at 1952, corresponding to the mid-twentieth-century onset of the Great Acceleration [1]. According to the authors, chemical and physical traces of human activity in mud and ice at sites around the world form layers centered on that year. They also note that 1952 is when fallout from the first hydrogen bomb test spread across the globe.

The authors state that humanity has used more energy since the 1950s than during the entire preceding Holocene, mostly from fossil fuels. In their view, the global, systemic scale and the speed of Earth system change since the 1950s differ in order of magnitude from earlier human impacts [1].

## Two meanings of the term

The authors separate two uses of the word. One is the geological epoch they defend. The other, which they call the extended Anthropocene, covers all substantial human impacts over tens of thousands of years, from early reshaping of ecosystems to the steam engine. Proposed start dates in this second family vary widely; some place it at 1784, when James Watt improved the steam engine.

According to the authors, the extended version cannot be defined in chronostratigraphic terms and masks the changes that began in the mid-twentieth century. A formal definition, they write, would allow quantitative and qualitative comparison between the Holocene and the Anthropocene, as already done in the planetary boundaries framework [1]. They also argue that it would help communication across Earth sciences, social sciences, humanities and policy.

A formal proposal to add the Anthropocene to the geological time scale, starting in 1952, went to the International Commission on Stratigraphy in October 2023. The commission rejected it in March 2024, amid disagreement over whether an epoch only seven decades old was too brief. The authors continue to use the term in the sense they describe.

## Sources

1. [doi.org](https://doi.org/10.1038/s43017-026-00820-z)
2. [Earth.com](https://www.earth.com/science/when-did-the-anthropocene-begin-scientists-make-the-case-for-a-specific-year)

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Source: RealTech, realtech.media — https://realtech.media/news/rt-24261f9bf09146047713a8f2_37_researchers_propose/