Reinhold Leinfelder

Humans have altered the Earth System to such an extent that the difference between nature and culture has vanished. We remove entire mountains, cut new valleys, create new lakes, determine the flow of rivers, decide where sediments are deposited, heat up the climate and raise the sea level. We homogenise the living world to an almost unimaginable extent. Our annual plastic production equals the weight of all humans. In the meantime we have generated a technosphere weighing about 30 trillion tonnes. To do so we have consumed about 1.5-times more energy in the last 70 years – mainly from fossil fuels – than in the previous 12,000 years.

The results of this Anthropocene analysis not only demand the definition of a new formal chronostratigraphic epoch/series, the Anthropocene, with new geosignals and technofossils such as radioactive fallout, spherical carbon particles (SCPs) derived from industrial high-temperature processes, microplastic particles, neophytic species, and a great array of isotope signals characterising its sediments. It also challenges us to rethink our relation with the Earth System. Deep time reflections, a better understanding of temporal dynamics, interdisciplinary systemic approaches, and polyperspectivic futures scenarios should help to foster a futures literacy necessary for co-designing an Anthropocene Earth System, in which humanity can be carried along into a sustainable and just future.