Response to Waters et al. (2022) The Anthropocene is complex. Defining it is not

Abstract

In response to our definition of the Anthropocene as a geological event analogous to the Great Oxidation Event and other complex, transformative events in the geological record (Gibbard et al., 2022a, 2022b), Waters et al. (2022) offers a suite of detailed and novel terminology for the Anthropocene with little or no previous support in the geological literature. The term “event” is already widely used as a general term in geology. We maintain that the Anthropocene is best understood through this general definition as a complex, heterogenous and ongoing event composed of manifold identifiable events occurring within it.