You couldn't lake it up...

Scientists identify start of humanity’s impact on Earth in a remote part of Canada

- NILIMA MARSHALL

SCIENTISTS are a step closer to declaring a new geological time that marks the beginning of humanity’s irreversible impact on Earth – after choosing a remote lake in Canada as its starting point. 

A team of experts, who have been gathering evidence of human-induced changes, have put forward Crawford Lake in Ontario as the official birthplace of the Anthropocene epoch.

The Anthropocene, or the time of humans, describes the time in the planet’s history when human activities began to have a significant influence on global systems.

The scientists said the formal start date of this epoch is the 1950s, coinciding with the appearance of plutonium, a man-made radioactive element used in nuclear weapons, as well as the start of “the great acceleration”, which refers to the surge of human activity across the planet.