科學家宣佈地質紀元進入“人類世”

The 11,700-year-old Holocene epoch is over. We're now living in the Anthropocene epoch.
長達11700年的全新世結束啦。我們如今正生活在“人類世”紀元。

編者注：全新世（Holocene Epoch），是最年輕的地質年代，它與更新世（Pleistocene Epoch）的界限以第四紀最後一次冰期結束，氣候轉暖爲標誌，因此又稱爲冰後期（post-glacial）。從距今1.2萬～1萬年開始到現在，是人類正在經歷的地球歷史階段。

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 geologic terms.
無需勞神費力，我們都能感受到人類對地球產生的巨大影響。如今，地質學界打算用地質術語來確認這些影響。

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.
科學家表示，長達11700年的全新世已結束，我們現在正生活在“人類世”：即人類活動對地球施加影響的時代。

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.
事實上，66歲以下的人自出生起就生活在這個紀元了。一支由35位國際頂尖研究者組成的“人類世”工作小組開展了紀元更變與否的投票，投票結果以30比3（有兩位研究人員缺席）的壓倒性優勢宣佈地質紀元進入“人類世”，並將開始時間確定爲1950年。

The date isn’t random: it matches when the first nuclear tests created a new stratum in the planet’s surface.
這個日期可不是隨便定的：它與首批覈試驗對地質表面造成影響的時間相符。

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.
實際上，核試驗並非結束全新世的唯一必要條件。人類活動對地球的影響是如此深刻，可供選擇的因素簡直多到讓人“眼花繚亂”，很難定奪到底哪一因素起了決定性作用。

Plastic pollution, soot from power plants, concrete and even domestic chicken bones were considered possible contenders.
塑料污染，發電廠煤煙，鋼筋混泥土，甚至是家養雞的骨頭都被列入可能的影響因素。

“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.”
工作組主席、萊斯特大學的簡•扎拉斯維奇表示：“放射性核素大概是這其中最厲害的一個因素—— 放射性核素真是伴隨着‘砰’聲來臨，但是可供選擇的因素太多了，許多因素都對地質產生了巨大影響。”

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.
紀元變更的投票結束後，工作組在未來幾年會利用現場勘測數據計算出最佳的全球標準低層年齡（GSSA），並確定“人類世”的開始日期，屆時會把研究結果呈遞國際地層委員會。

It will then need ratification from the Executive Committee of the International Union of Geological Sciences.
隨後還需要國際地質科學聯合會的執行委員會正式認可研究結果。

So it’s not official yet, but Zalasiewicz believes the team has a “pretty good case” to present.
所以現在官方其實還未正式承認人類世的開始，但扎拉斯維奇相信他的團隊遞交的案例非常棒。

“The significance of the Anthropocene is that it sets a different trajectory for the Earth system, of which we of course are part,” he explained.
他解釋說：“‘人類世’的意義在於，它讓地球體系步入了一個與衆不同的軌道，在這個新紀元裏，人類也參與其中。”

“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.”
“如果我們的提議通過審覈，‘人類世’在我出生前不久就開始了。我們大半輩子都生活在‘人類世’中，而且剛意識到地質紀元變更的規模和持久性。”

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.
換句話來說，至少從地理的角度看，我們將無法否認人類對地球造成的影響。而且無論我們如何定義都很難將這個影響扭轉成正面影響。