新地質時代來臨,地球進入“人類世”

Last week, a panel of scientists voted in favor of classifying the age we are living in as a new geological epoch—the “Anthropocene”—after reviewing available evidence on the issue.

上週，一組科學家在審閱了現有證據之後，投票贊成將我們所處的時代劃分爲一個新的地質時代——人類世。

Since it was first formally proposed more than a decade ago, the name has been the subject of intense debate among experts. But the 34-member Anthropocene Working Group (AWG) chaired by Jan Zalasiewicz, of the University of Leicester in the UK, decided that humans are having such a profound impact on our planet that the term is a valid one, reported.

自從十多年前這個術語首次被正式提出以來，專家們一直爲此進行激烈的爭論。據自然雜誌網站報道，人類世工作組（AWG）確定，人類對地球產生了如此深遠的影響，這一說法是有理有據的。人類世工作組由英國萊斯特大學的簡·扎拉塞維奇擔任主席，共有34名成員。

The International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS)—which oversees the geological time chart—has yet to approve the new term. But in the wake of the latest vote, the AWG will submit a formal proposal to the ICS by 2021 in a bid to formally define our current era, where mankind is the dominant influence on the planet's climate and environment.

負責地質時間表的國際地層學委員會（ICS）尚未批准這個新術語。但在最近一次投票之後，AWG將在2021年之前向ICS提交一份正式提案，以正式定義我們當前的時代，也就是人類對地球氣候和環境產生主導影響的時代。

The vote saw 29 members of the AWG support not only the new Anthropocene designation but also a favored start date—the mid-twentieth century. Various starting points have been proposed for the Anthropocene era ranging from the beginnings of agriculture more than 10,000 years ago to the first atomic bomb blast in 1945 that spread radioactive debris around the world—traces of which can still be detected in the planet's soil and glaciers.

在這次投票中，29名AWG成員不僅支持新的人類世命名，而且還支持以20世紀中期作爲人類世的開始。對於人類世的起點有不同的提議，有提議以一萬多年前農耕時代的開始爲起點，還有提議以1945年第一顆原子彈爆炸爲起點，這一次爆炸將放射性碎片散佈到世界各地，如今在地球的土壤和冰川中仍然可以檢測到放射性碎片的痕跡。

Most scientists who support the Anthropocene designation favor the later start date, and the AWG panel agreed based on the fact that rapid population growth and industrialization in the mid-twentieth century—which led to greater natural resource use and greenhouse gas emissions—mark a “Great Acceleration” on our species' impact on the planet.

大多數支持人類世命名的科學家更傾向於以1945年爲起點。由於20世紀中葉人口的快速增長及工業化消耗了更多的自然資源併產生了更多的溫室氣體，標誌着人類對地球物種的影響“大加速”，AWG支持這一起始時間。

“The Anthropocene works as a geological unit of time, process and strata,” Zalasiewicz told . “It is distinguishable. It is distinctive.”

扎拉塞維奇告訴自然雜誌網站說：“人類世是時間、過程和地層的地質單位。它是可辨別的，也是獨特的。”

The next step for the AWG is to identify a definitive geological marker known as a “golden spike” to include in their formal proposal. This is an internationally recognized reference point in rock layers which scientists use to define the boundaries between geological epochs. The current epoch, known as the Holocene, began around 11,700 years ago at the end of the last glacial period.

AWG的下一步工作是確定一個被稱爲“金釘”的權威地質標誌，並將其納入正式提案中。這是一個國際公認的岩層基準點，科學家們用它來定義地質時代之間的邊界。現在這個被稱爲全新世的時代大約始於11700年前的最後一個冰河時期的末期。

The panel outlined ten golden spike candidates, which could be used to differentiate the Holocene from the Anthropocene, including a cave in northern Italy and a lake in China. They are also considering whether to use traces of radioactive debris—originating from the first nuclear tests—in order to bolster their claim.

該小組列出了十個金釘候選地點，它們可以用來區分全新世和人類世，包括意大利北部的一個洞穴和中國的一個湖泊。他們還在考慮是否使用來自第一次核試驗的放射性碎片痕跡來支持他們的主張。