The Anthropocene continues to challenge earth and environmental scientists to provide understanding about the accelerating human impact on the earth system.  In July 2023, the Anthropocene Working Group (AWG) of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) decided to recommend Crawford Lake in Canada as the location for the Anthropocene GSSP, with the lower boundary of the new Epoch set at the mid-20th Century. This conceptualization is sensitive to the sudden and unprecedented expansion of human modification of the earth system (including the climate system, geomorphological processes, and the biosphere) during the last century. Accordingly, the scope of this session covers (but is not limited to) (i) Stratigraphic signatures of the Anthropocene including features of the GSSP candidate sites; (ii) Climate change impacts (iii) The sixth mass extinction--and the need to frame it with a geological perspective (iii) Geomorphological processes in the Anthropocene, and (iv) The role of environmental history in analyzing the Anthropocene. Additional viewpoints are also welcome. We also want to reflect on the merits of the AWG's recent recommendation of the Anthropocene based on a single GSSP, and critically examine some dissenting opinions that seek to portray the Anthropocene as an event with no temporal boundary. 

The Anthropocene continues to challenge earth and environmental scientists to provide understanding about the accelerating human impact on the earth system.  In July 2023, the Anthropocene Working Group (AWG) of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) decided to recommend Crawford Lake in Canada as the location for the Anthropocene GSSP, with the lower boundary of the new Epoch set at the mid-20th Century. This conceptualization is sensitive to the sudden and unprecedented expansion of human modification of the earth system (including the climate system, geomorphological processes, and the biosphere) during the last century. Accordingly, the scope of this session covers (but is not limited to) (i) Stratigraphic signatures of the Anthropocene including features of the GSSP candidate sites; (ii) Climate change impacts (iii) The sixth mass extinction--and the need to frame it with a geological perspective (iii) Geomorphological processes in the Anthropocene, and (iv) The role of environmental history in analyzing the Anthropocene. Additional viewpoints are also welcome. We also want to reflect on the merits of the AWG's recent recommendation of the Anthropocene based on a single GSSP, and critically examine some dissenting opinions that seek to portray the Anthropocene as an event with no temporal boundary.