Future Earth: Advancing Civic Understanding of the Anthropocene

Abstract

The Anthropocene, a term first coined in the 1980s by biologist Eugene Stoermer, is a word that encapsulates a powerful idea - that the world is now in the throes of a novel geological epoch, a period of time in which human activity, not natural cycles, dominates many of Earth's chemical, geological, and biological systems. The growing realization of our importance has caused a reanalysis, both scientifically and ethically, of our relationship with the natural world. ©2014. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved.