Reinhold Leinfelder

In a world where facts are contested, the conceptual tool of the Anthropocene epoch – that is, the dramatic and clearly demonstrable ways humans have changed the Earth system trajectory since the mid-20th century – provides real value for society in general and for education in particular. As a unifying concept, it helps us (a) understand the transformed bioclimatic conditions in which we live, (b) appreciate how fragile they are, how rapidly they are shifting, and their implications for humanity, and (c) explain the importance of containing climatic, biological, and attendant societal runaway effects, through deeper understanding of the Earth system. The Anthropocene as an educational tool can illuminate the web of connections between these themes, but should remain at arm’s length from calls to action.

Human activity is transforming the shape, size, and resilience of Earth’s biosphere, degrading and augmenting Holocene baseline conditions at various scales, and replacing the wild biosphere with an anthropogenically modified one. We evaluate episodes of biosphere change throughout Earth history and compare them with contemporary and near-future anthropogenic changes, developing the concept of biosphere disruptors – agents that force global-scale macroevolutionary change. Transient disruptors are short-lived agents (mean 8.0×10 ⁵ years), including massive volcanism and asteroid impacts. Persistent disruptors , including atmospheric and ocean oxygenation and land plant evolution, remain in the Earth System over long timescales (mean 1.6×10 ⁸ years). In the geological record, transient disruptors are associated with temporary but sometimes massive biosphere degradation, whereas persistent disruptors are associated with sustained biosphere enhancement. Most anthropogenic biosphere impacts resemble those of past transient disruptors , globally degrading wild biomass and biodiversity. Humanity is driving the second highest rate of biosphere degradation in Earth history after the Cretaceous-Palaeogene bolide impact. However, humanity is the first disrupting agent capable of reflecting on and potentially transforming its impact on planetary habitability. If we can achieve this, humanity could drive the greatest rate of increase in planetary habitability in Earth history on centennial to millennial timescales.

The Anthropocene was introduced to denote a dramatic, ongoing, planetary shift from prolonged relative Holocene stability, driving the Earth system into a new functional state outside its natural variability. Now stratigraphically‐grounded, the Anthropocene is de facto a new epoch, not the subjective filtering of all anthropogenic impacts in Earth history.

The Anthropocene was introduced to denote a dramatic, ongoing, planetary shift from prolonged Holocene stability, driving the Earth system into a new functional state outside its natural variability. Now stratigraphically-grounded, the Anthropocene is de facto a new epoch, not an encapsulation of all anthropogenic impacts in Earth history.

The extensive array of mid‐20^th century stratigraphic event signals associated with the ‘Great Acceleration’ enables precise and unambiguous recognition of the Anthropocene as an epoch/series within the Geological Time Scale. A mid‐20^th century inception is consistent with Earth System science analysis in which the Anthropocene term and concept arose, and would reflect the reality that our planet has sharply exited the range of natural variability characterizing the Holocene Epoch/Series, which the Anthropocene would therefore terminate. An alternative, recently proposed ‘geological event’ approach to the Anthropocene is primarily an interdisciplinary concept, encompassing historical and socio‐cultural processes and their global environmental impacts over a diachronous timeframe that extends back at least many millennia. Resembling more closely a geological episode than an event, it would decouple the Anthropocene from its chronostratigraphic delineation and association with an abrupt planetary perturbation; but separately defined and differently named it might be usefully complementary. We recommend a clear separation of epochs, events and episodes. An epoch is a formal subdivision of the Geological Time Scale, and its correlation may be assisted by one or more events; an event is usually, and particularly in the Quaternary, a brief incident or perturbation with a sedimentary expression; and an episode is a longer, internally complex time interval that may include several events and even extend across several epochs.

We examine three distinctive biostratigraphic signatures of humans associated with hunting and gathering, landscape domestication and globalization. All three signatures have significant fossil records of regional importance that can be correlated inter‐regionally and help describe the developing pattern of human expansion and appropriation of resources. While none have individual first or last appearances that provide a globally isochronous marker, all three signatures overlap stratigraphically, in that they are part of a continuum of change, with complex regional patterns. Here we show that during the later stages of globalization, late nineteenth to twentieth century records of species translocations can be used to build an interconnected web of palaeontological correlation with decadal or sub‐decadal precision that dovetails with other stratigraphic markers for the Anthropocene. This palaeontological web is also a proxy for accelerating species extinction and of a state shift in the biosphere in the twentieth century.

Im Kontext des Anthropozäns sollten Museen durch eine Verknüpfung visueller, szenografischer, narrativer, explorativer und partizipativer Ansätze dazu beitragen können, das Potential eigener Gestaltungsfähigkeit zu unterstreichen und damit persönlichen Lebensgeschichten eine erweiterte Sinnhaftigkeit zu geben. Ein stärker systemischer Ansatz zum Verständnis der Zusammenhänge des Erdsystems auch hinsichtlich der Zukunftsfähigkeit der darin eingebetteten und interagierenden Anthroposphäre ist dazu unabdingbar. Museen haben ein großes Potenzial, aber auch eine große Verantwortung, diese Verknüpfung menschlichen Lebens und Handelns mit dem Erdsystem aufzuzeigen und dabei auch die Abhängigkeit der Gerechtigkeit zwischen heutigen und zukünftigen Generationen vom wissensbasierten gärtnerischen Umgang mit der Erde zu thematisieren. Die Ausrichtung unseres Handelns entlang einer symbiontischen Einbindung der Menschheit in das Erdsystem, böte vielfältige Ansätze zur dauerhaften Sicherung der menschlichen Lebensgrundlagen und würde unter der Prämisse der Teilhabe an Ressourcen und öf fentlichen Gütern eine auf sozialer Gerechtigkeit und Funktionsfähigkeit des Erdsystems basierende Gestaltung der Zukunft ermöglichen. Sich auf Zukunftsthemen verstärkt einzulassen, und vielleicht sogar das Abenteuer zu wagen, wahrscheinliche, mögliche und wünschbare Lebensweltzukünfte in Museen auszustellen, um sie explorieren, imaginieren, diskutieren und letztendlich mitgestalten zu können, sollte eine der wichtigsten Zukunftsaufgaben für Museen darstellen.