The idea of naming the current epoch 'Anthropocene' rather than using its formal time unit, the Holocene, became popular after Paul Crutzen and Eugene Stoermer published in May 2000 an article on the IGBP Global Change Newsletter called "The 'Anthropocene'.
In February 2008, Jan Zalasiewicz and other members of the Stratigraphy Commission of the Geological Society of London published a paper that considered the possibility to "amplify and extend the discussion of the effects referred to by Crutzen and then apply the same criteria used to set up new epochs to ask whether there really is justification or need for a new term, and if so, where and how its boundary might be placed.
[15] Within the framework of that project, HKW was able to acquired in 2018 financial support for a systematic assessment of potential candidates for the Anthropocene's Global boundary Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) by the AWG through means of a special appropriation from the German Bundestag.
As for most of the epochs in the Phanerozoic (the current Eon, starting 539 million years ago), determining the beginning of the Anthropocene by locating and agreeing upon its lower boundary is a necessary step in its process of formal recognition as a geochronological/chronostratigraphic unit.
The volume constitutes a landmark publication for the AWG, collecting a preliminary body of scientific evidence for the Anthropocene, and establishing research areas and trajectories retraced in the following years.
The monograph also links the Anthropocene to the question concerning anthropogenic climate change, and the role of human technology and the technosphere in impacting the functioning of the Earth system.
[23] On July 11, 2023, the AWG proposed Crawford Lake, Canada as GSSP candidate site of the Anthropocene series in a joint press conference with the Max Planck Society.
[24][25] In 2016 seven prominent members of the AWG – Erle Ellis, John McNeill, Eric Odada, Andrew Revkin, Will Steffen, Davor Vidas and Jan Zalasiewicz – were interviewed in the feature documentary Anthropocene which showed on campuses and at film festivals worldwide and helped the term gain public attention.