For the second time in human history, we are witnessing a new geological epoch

Artist Berndnaut Smilde imagines strange new climates of the Anthropocene by suspending clouds in the middle of rooms. (credit: Berndnaut Smilde)

11,700 years ago, the Earth suffered a catastrophic climate change. As the ice age ended, sea levels rose by 120 meters, the days grew warmer, and many kinds of plant and animal life died out. But one animal began to thrive more than ever before. Homo sapiens, which had already spread to every continent except Antarctica, came up with a new survival strategy. Today, we call it farming.

Thanks in part to that innovation, humans survived to witness the dramatic transition from the Pleistocene epoch to the Holocene—it was the first such geological transition in almost 2 million years. But now geologists say we're witnessing another transition, as we move from the Holocene into an epoch called the Anthropocene. Here's what that means.

Remember the Holocene

At the dawn of the Holocene 11,700 years ago, humans lived in nomadic groups, often returning to the same campsites year after year but always on the move. Still, there is evidence that they were dabbling with gardening opportunistically, perhaps leaving seeds behind at favorite campsites to encourage the growth of grain.

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