Crawford Lake: Key to Understanding the Anthropocene?

Crawford Lake in Ontario, Canada, is being considered as the official starting point for the Anthropocene, a new geologic chapter that marks the transition from the dependable environment of the past to the uncertain new reality humans have created. In just seven decades, humans have brought about greater changes than they did in more than seven millennia. Crawford Lake's sediments hold a record of more than a thousand years of history, showing how human pressures on the lake built up over the centuries until the world reached a tipping point around 1950. The Anthropocene Working Group is expected to select its preferred "Golden Spike" site this summer.