The Illustrious Official College of Geologists (ICOG) rejects the decision adopted by the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) to include the term in its dictionary Anthropocene with the official consideration of “current geological epoch” and to adopt a new definition of the term Holocene, “to the one who terminates”.
The entity recalls in a statement that the International Union of Geological Sciences has not yet recognized the Anthropocene as a geological epoch and continues to consider the holocenewhich began about 11,000 years ago, like the current geological epoch.
At present, the RAE has adopted the definition of holocene as ‘said of an era: Second of the Quaternary period, which covers from about ten thousand years ago to the middle of the 20th century’. Previously, it was defined as saying of an era: That it is the most recent of the Quaternary period and that it covers from about ten thousand years ago to the present day.
IV International Congress of Stratigraphy
At the IV International Congress of Stratigraphy, to be held in July in Lille (France), there will be a monographic session dedicated to the Anthropocene, as reported by the ICOG. “Even if the homonymous Working Group managed to approve a proposal for a global stratotype for the Anthropocene, a long and complicated process would begin that could last for years and whose result would be very uncertain despite the pressures that are intended to be generated from outside the geological field. “, has assured the president of the entity, Manuel Regueiro.
Therefore, they ask the Scientific and Technical Vocabulary Commission of the RAE to reconsider your decisionremove or modify the definition of Anthropocene that currently appears in your dictionary and re-include the definition of the Holocene that appeared in its online version in September 2021, which is the one accepted by the IUGS.
In addition, they point out that in the RAE there is no geologist in the institution and “it would be convenient to have someone who can correctly guide the academy when geology terms are debated.”
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