coinage claim for "Anthropocene"

[Baker, John]

        This may well be correct.  The earliest cite I've seen, an article in Science on 13 Oct 2000, puts "Anthropocene" in quotes and itself cites "P. Crutzen and E. Stoermer, IGBP Newsl. 41, 17 (2000)."  (The citation practice used in Science means that the article appears at volume 41, page 17 of the IGBP Newsletter.)

John Baker


----- Original Message -----
From: "Erin McKean" <editor at VERBATIMMAG.COM>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Tuesday, September 09, 2003 6:36 AM
Subject: coinage claim for "Anthropocene"


> There's an interview with climatologist and Nobel Prize winner Paul
> Crutzen in the 5 July 2003 New Scientist, where he claims to have
> coined the term "Anthropocene."
>
> Q. Your latest find is more of an invention: the new geological age
> of the "Anthropocene."
> A. This happened at a meeting three years ago. Someone said something
> about the Holocene, the geological era covering the period since the
> end of the last ice age. I suddenly thought this was wrong. In the
> past 200 years, humans have become a major geological force on the
> planet. So I said no, we are not in the Holocene any more: we are in
> the Anthropocene. I just made up the word on the spur of the moment.
> But it seems to have stuck.
>
> (p.47, col 1)
>
> Erin McKean
> editor at verbatimmag.com
>