Affiliation:
1. Applied Physics, Alumni, Oxford Brookes University, UK
Abstract
Geologists are currently finalizing the specification of a new geological time unit, the Anthropocene Epoch, characterized by the Earth’s response to humans driving geological change. Once it is ratified we can use it also as a civil time unit. The standard for time reckoning used worldwide today is the Gregorian calendar, introduced in 1582. As a calendar of the Catholic church, it is structured around supernatural events and indeterminate religious dates. Astronomical year numbering has long fixed the arcane arithmetic and religious notations of the Gregorian calendar, but the origin of its time scale perpetuates the links to religious and supernatural dates. If we shift the origin of the astronomical time scale to the onset of the Anthropocene, we can update the calendar with a science based time scale that is anchored by real world data and events. Such a time scale would be better suited as a culturally inclusive standard in a multi-cultural world.
Subject
Geology,Ecology,Global and Planetary Change
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