The term Anthropocene was coined in 2000 by Nobel prize-winning chemist Paul Crutzen, who claimed that the effect of human behaviour on the earth during the last 200 years was so significant that it should represent a new geological era. ‘Anthropocene’ was coined by analogy with Holocene, combining the affix -cene (from the Greek kainos, meaning ‘new’ or ‘recent’) with the Greek anthrōpos, meaning ‘human being’ (compare the word anthropology and its derivatives, which refers to the study of human societies).

The term Anthropocene was coined in 2000 by Nobel prize-winning chemist Paul Crutzen, who claimed that the effect of human behaviour on the earth during the last 200 years was so significant that it should represent a new geological era. ‘Anthropocene’ was coined by analogy with Holocene, combining the affix -cene (from the Greek kainos, meaning ‘new’ or ‘recent’) with the Greek anthrōpos, meaning ‘human being’ (compare the word anthropology and its derivatives, which refers to the study of human societies).