Brock University Professor of Earth Sciences Francine McCarthy (right) was among an elite group of scientists and advisors who presented at the 2024 Plenary Session of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences in Vatican City. Brock President and Vice-Chancellor Lesley Rigg (left) visited Crawford Lake in Milton, Ont., last summer to learn more about Brock Anthropocene research. Brock University research on the Anthropocene found a global audience during a Vatican conference last month.
Brock Earth Sciences Professor Francine McCarthy presented research on the proposed new epoch in geological time during the 2024 Plenary Session of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences held in Vatican City from Sept. 23 to 25.
Themed “Science for Sustainability and Wellbeing in the Anthropocene: Opportunities, challenges and AI,” the conference brought together members of the Academy with Nobel Laureates, Vatican dignitaries and influential advisors of current and former world leaders to discuss what it means to be in a new geological epoch and its impacts on humanity.
During the event, McCarthy discussed her work on the stratigraphic record of the Anthropocene and her involvement with Anthropocene Working Group’s proposal of Crawford Lake in Milton, Ont. as the location that best shows the transition to the Anthropocene, when human activity brought about major changes to Earth systems.
Her team analyzed core samples from the unique deep basin of Crawford Lake. Annual layers of sediment in the lake, called varves, contained deposits of human-made byproducts such as pollutants and fly ash – evidence of the impact of rapid changes in population growth, industrialization and globalization on the planet following the Second World War, clearly identified by plutonium-239 and other fallout from atomic and thermonuclear weapons.
“The only way to predict what the world will look like years from now is by looking at the geological record,” she says. “We need to use the geological information we have to plan for the future in this world that is changing beyond norms that humans have ever experienced. Within decades, we will be experiencing conditions that humans have not lived through.”
McCarthy is grateful for the opportunity to inform an elite group of scientists and international leaders who can influence policy and implement actions that can slow the negative ramifications of climate change.
McCarthy’s presentation can be viewed on YouTube.
