Are we literally living in a new epoch? Our impact on the Earth’s chemistry and climate has cut short our time in the 11,700-year old geological epoch known as the Holocene, scientists said, according to Phys.org. We now live in the Anthropocene, or at least we will be if the recommendation of some scientists is accepted at the International Geological Congress in Cape Town, South Africa — a process that “is likely to take at least two years and requires ratification by three other academic bodies.”

According to the recommendation, the Anthropocene, or "new age of man," would have a starting point from the mid-20th century. “Concentrations in the air of carbon dioxide, methane and stratospheric ozone; surface temperatures, ocean acidification, marine fish harvesting, and tropical forest loss; population growth, construction of large dams, international tourism—all of them take off from about mid-century,” in what is referred to as the “Great Acceleration.” The yardstick according to which the recommendation will be gauged is the impact “measured in rocks, lake sediments, ice cores, or other such formations.”

One of the scientists trying to usher us into the Anthropocene says this is an easy hurdle to clear: “There’s a whole array of potential signals out there,” pointing to microplastics as an example of synthetic, man-made substances that are now components of sediment around the world, both in land and in the sea. There are some sceptics, however. One professor disagrees entirely with the proposal as “not enough time has elapsed for a new epoch.” Stanley Finney, a professor and chair of the International Commission on Stratigraphy says “the drive to officially recognise the Anthropocene may, in fact, be political rather than scientific.”