The Anthropocene, Wait, What? A Basque’s Coastal Experience Helps to Figure It Out

Abstract

At the very end of the twentieth century I was working on my PhD project that included getting (knee) deep into the mud of the Bilbao Estuary (Northern Spain) to understand the environmental evolution of this system dramatically altered by anthropogenic activities. Almost concomitantly, a new term to describe the period during which humans have become major drivers of change was coined: “Anthropocene.” This chapter briefly narrates my experience as PhD student and how it led me to adopt this term to identify sediments reflecting predominantly human activities and why (in my opinion) this term is relevant.