Explain Anthropocene to 13-year-old kid


The term "anthropocene" is informally used in scientific contexts.[23] The Geological Society of America entitled its 2011 annual meeting: Archean to Anthropocene: The past is the key to the future.[24] The new epoch has no agreed start-date, but one proposal, based on atmospheric evidence, is to fix the start with the Industrial Revolution c. 1780, with the invention of the steam engine.[20][25] Other scientists link the new term to earlier events, such as the rise of agriculture and the Neolithic Revolution (around 12,000 years BP). Evidence of relative human impact – such as the growing human influence on land use, ecosystems, biodiversity, and species extinction – is substantial; scientists think that human impact has significantly changed (or halted) the growth of biodiversity.[26][27][28][29][30] Those arguing for earlier dates posit that the proposed Anthropocene may have begun as early as 14,000–15,000 years BP, based on geologic evidence; this has led other scientists to suggest that "the onset of the Anthropocene should be extended back many thousand years";[31]: 1  this would make the Anthropocene essentially synonymous with the current term, Holocene.