科学家宣布地质纪元进入“人类世”

　　长达11700年的全新世结束啦。我们如今正生活在“人类世”纪元。

　　编者注：全新世（Holocene Epoch），是最年轻的地质年代，它与更新世（Pleistocene Epoch）的界限以第四纪最后一次冰期结束，气候转暖为标志，因此又称为冰后期（post-glacial）。从距今1.2万～1万年开始到现在，是人类正在经历的地球历史阶段。

　　You don’t need to be paying much attention to the world around you to know that humans are having a massive influence on the planet, but our influence is now on the way to being officially recognised in geologic² terms.

　　无需劳神费力，我们都能感受到人类对地球产生的巨大影响。如今，地质学界打算用地质术语来确认这些影响。

　　人类世

　　The 11,700-year-old geological Holocene epoch has ended, scientists say, and we’re now living in the Anthropocene: an era defined by humanity’s influence on the world around us.

　　科学家表示，长达11700年的全新世已结束，我们现在正生活在“人类世”：即人类活动对地球施加影响的时代。

　　In fact, unless you’re over the age of 66, you’ve always been living in it. A 35-strong team of international researchers from the Working Group on the Anthropocene voted 30-3 (two were absent) in favour of the epoch shift, and the starting date is 1950.

　　事实上，66岁以下的人自出生起就生活在这个纪元了。一支由35位国际顶尖研究者组成的“人类世”工作小组开展了纪元更变与否的投票，投票结果以30比3（有两位研究人员缺席）的压倒性优势宣布地质纪元进入“人类世”，并将开始时间确定为1950年。

　　The date isn’t random³: it matches when the first nuclear tests created a new stratum⁴ in the planet’s surface.

　　这个日期可不是随便定的：它与首批核试验对地质表面造成影响的时间相符。

　　Actually, it won’t necessarily be nuclear tests that ended the Holocene. Humanity’s impact on the planet is so great that we’re left “spoiled for choice” in terms of which particular signal to choose.

　　实际上，核试验并非结束全新世的唯一必要条件。人类活动对地球的影响是如此深刻，可供选择的因素简直多到让人“眼花缭乱”，很难定夺到底哪一因素起了决定性作用。

　　Plastic pollution, soot⁵ from power plants, concrete and even domestic chicken bones were considered possible contenders.

　　塑料污染，发电厂煤烟，钢筋混泥土，甚至是家养鸡的骨头都被列入可能的影响因素。

　　“The radionuclides are probably the sharpest – they really come on with a bang,” said the Working Group’s chair Jan Zalasiewicz, of the University of Leicester. “But we are spoiled for choice. There are so many signals.”

　　工作组主席、莱斯特大学的简?扎拉斯维奇表示：“放射性核素大概是这其中最厉害的一个因素—— 放射性核素真是伴随着‘砰’声来临，但是可供选择的因素太多了，许多因素都对地质产生了巨大影响。”

　　Now that the vote has been done, we’ll see a few years of site sampling to figure out the best Global Standard Stratigraphic Age (GSSA) to date the start of the Anthropocene, which will then be presented to the International Commission on Stratigraphy.

　　纪元变更的投票结束后，工作组在未来几年会利用现场勘测数据计算出最佳的全球标准低层年龄（GSSA），并确定“人类世”的开始日期，届时会把研究结果呈递国际地层委员会。

　　It will then need ratification⁶ from the Executive Committee of the International Union of Geological Sciences.

　　随后还需要国际地质科学联合会的执行委员会正式认可研究结果。

　　So it’s not official yet, but Zalasiewicz believes the team has a “pretty good case” to present.

　　所以现在官方其实还未正式承认人类世的开始，但扎拉斯维奇相信他的团队递交的案例非常棒。

　　“The significance of the Anthropocene is that it sets a different trajectory⁷ for the Earth system, of which we of course are part,” he explained.

　　他解释说：“‘人类世’的意义在于，它让地球体系步入了一个与众不同的轨道，在这个新纪元里，人类也参与其中。”

　　“If our recommendation is accepted, the Anthropocene will have started just a little before I was born. We have lived most of our lives in something called the Anthropocene and are just realising the scale and permanence of the change.”

　　“如果我们的提议通过审核，‘人类世’在我出生前不久就开始了。我们大半辈子都生活在‘人类世’中，而且刚意识到地质纪元变更的规模和持久性。”

　　In other words, geologically at least, there will be no denying the influence mankind has had on the planet. And it’s a hard one to put a positive spin upon, no matter how you frame it.

　　换句话来说，至少从地理的角度看，我们将无法否认人类对地球造成的影响。而且无论我们如何定义都很难将这个影响扭转成正面影响。

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