Mother Nature Network: The Anthropocene is the name of a proposed new geological time period (probably an epoch) that may soon enter the official Geologic Time Scale. The Anthropocene is defined by the human influence on Earth, where we have become a geological force shaping the global landscape and evolution of our planet. According to this idea, the present epoch still known as the Holocene, which started 11,000 years ago would have ended somewhere between the end of 18th century and the 1950s (when the Anthropocene...