The floor of Crawford Lake in Ontario acts like a storybook, preserving Earth’s recent history in chronological order. Crawford Lake reveals the activities of local Iroquoian communities from the late 13th to 15th centuries, all the way through to the present day. This is because Crawford Lake is a meromictic lake, meaning that the dense bottom layer of water does not mix with the less dense upper layers. “The isolated bottom layer of water remains under disturbed, enabling the accumulation of clearly laminated valves which record precise information about the time during which they were deposited,” according to the Anthropocene Working Group. Experts have nominated Crawford Lake as representation for the start of the Anthropocene epoch, a proposed new geological era characterised by significant changes to the planet’s surface as a result of human behaviour. The Anthropocene is yet to be officially accepted as a unit of geologic time, but in 2016 a working group under the guidance of an International Commission on Stratigraphy subcommittee agreed that human behaviour has left scars so deep that they will remain evident even into the distant future. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter One of the most notable markers of the Anthropocene is the appearance of plutonium, a radioactive material that appeared in the mid-20th century as a result of hydrogen bomb tests. “The presence of plutonium gives us a stark indicator of when humanity became such a dominant force that it could leave a unique global ‘fingerprint’ on our planet,” explained Professor Andrew Cundy, Chair in Environmental Radiochemistry at the University of Southampton and member of the Anthropocene Working Group. “In nature, plutonium is only present in trace amounts. But in the early-1950s, when the first hydrogen bomb tests took place, we see an unprecedented increase and then spike in the levels of plutonium in core samples from around the world. We then see a decline in plutonium from the mid-1960s onwards when the Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty came into effect.” Agreeing on a simple measure that defines the boundary between chapters in Earth’s history is just the first step. This measure requires agreement among scientists on a single location to define the boundaries. Known as the Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point, or a golden spike, plays a crucial role in standardising these borders between epochs. The Anthropocene Working Group has been evaluating potential golden spike sites, from Oued Akrech, Morocco, to Alano di Piave, Italy. After spending three years assessing the qualities of a dozen potential golden spikes for the Anthropocene, finally the AGW has landed on Crawford Lake. “Crawford Lake is so special because it allows us to see at annual resolution the changes in Earth history throughout two separate periods of human impact on this small lake,” micropalaeontologist Francine McCarthy of Brock University in Canada, a voting member of the AGW, said at a press briefing. The lake’s unique properties, such as its small size, depth, and lack of water mixing create sediments that precisely record environmental changes over the past millennia. To officially establish the Anthropocene in the International Chronostratigraphic Chart, the golden spike at Crawford Lake must undergo a series of voting by various commissions and unions. If successful, it will mark the moment when human activities permanently altered the planet. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

EWING, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug 4, 2023--

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds says it “feels good to get in the game” after endorsing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for president

WASHINGTON A prominent U.S. Senate Republican on Sunday said former President Donald Trump should drop out of the

Former President Donald Trump confirmed Sunday he will not participate in the first Republican primary debate this week.

More than 100,000 police and soldiers have taken up positions to protect people voting for Ecuador’s next president

The last time that a Democratic presidential candidate won North Carolina, Anderson Clayton could not vote. But now, the 25-year-old chairwoman of the North Carolina Democratic Party has a task that would overwhelm operatives twice her age: flip North Carolina blue for the first time in 16 years. “Like, I know that we either win in 2024, and we do amazing things and we go forward as a state and as a nation, or we regress backwards,” she told The Independent in an interview. “It really is now or never for North Carolina, in my opinion.” Republicans, for their part, know that the state is important. Last weekend, former president Donald Trump, former vice president Mike Pence and Florida Gov Ron DeSantis, three of the top contenders for the Republican nomination for president, descended on Greensboro for the state GOP convention. North Carolina is not an early primary state like Iowa, New Hampshire, or even neighbouring South Carolina. But the three candidates visiting the state shows the importance of the state, Ms Clayton told The Independent. “They have to win North Carolina,” Ms Clayton said, noting how the last time a Republican won the presidency without winning the Tar Heel State was Dwight Eisenhower’ in the 1950s. “And what’s at stake is that you have three candidates like Trump and Pence and DeSantis, who are coming in who are all three examples, in my opinion, of right-wing extremism each in their own right.” Democratic voters in the state have plenty of reasons to turn out and vote. Despite the fact that the state has a Democratic governor in Roy Cooper, Republicans in the state legislature have enough votes to override his veto, which they did recently when they passed a 12-week abortion ban, cutting off abortion access throughout a majority of the South. Mr Cooper, who is term-limited, will also see the end of his term in 2024, which means Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein will compete for his seat against Mark Robinson, who has a history of making inflammatory remarks. Ms Clayton said she is not taking anything for granted, especially against an incredibly well-organised Republican Party. “I think that Democrats have to take the energy that we have right now and the anger that we have right now and motivate it forward and use people to say how do we turn anger into action,” she said. “Because right now, there’s not a whole lot of things that we can change at the state level, because you know, you do have racial gerrymandering that is now legal ... that is racial gerrymandering to me.” Democrats in North Carolina were not always starting from such a disadvantage. In 2008, Barack Obama became the first Democratic presidential nominee to win North Carolina since Jimmy Carter in 1976, while Kay Hagan won the state’s US Senate seat. Democrats also controlled the governorship and both houses of the North Carolina General Assembly even as other Southern states moved rightward since the 1960s. But since Mr Obama’s 2008 victory, Republicans have run the table in the state. In 2010, as the state reeled from the Great Recession, Republicans took both houses of the General Assembly for the first time since 1898 and in 2012, they won the governorship, giving them the first trifecta in ages. Since then, Republicans flipped the state’s other Senate seat when Thom Tillis won it in 2014 and held it in 2020 when a sex scandal felled Democrat Cal Cunningham, and Joe Biden narrowly lost the state even as Mr Cooper won re-election. Last year, even as Democrats beat back two Trump-endorsed congressional candidates, Republicans gained seats in the state legislature, cleaned up in the Supreme Court, and Republican Ted Budd beat Cheri Beasley in the Senate race thanks in part to Mr Trump’s endorsement and tons of money from Senate Mitch McConnell’s Senate Leadership Fund political action committee. The weak performance led to Ms Clayton’s election. She said Democrats have made many mistakes in those intervening years, which caused them to fall so far, suggesting the party appears to have mostly abandoned rural voters. “The majority of North Carolina lives in a rural community, you’ve got the highest or the second highest population of rural folks besides Texas in our state,” she said. “And to cede any of that ground to see these populations that have historically black and brown communities. And then in these rural counties that we have not tapped into, it’s just doing a disservice to our party.” She said that means going to every county in the state. “So in our Democratic governor candidate showing up in Cherokee County in North Carolina, my God,” she said. “When was the last time that, you know, Murphy saw a Democrat, like, it’s been a minute, to be honest with you.” She also added that Democrats could learn from Mr Obama’s victory in 2008, when he sent organisers throughout the South. President Joe Biden and the Democratic National Committee have begun to make a play for the state and Mr Biden visited North Carolina last week. Ms Clayton added that, for the most part, Democrats nationally have avoided supporting state parties in the South. “Georgia had to win an election before the national party came in and invested in them,” she said. “There’s a real aspect here of, we have underfunded the South for generations in this party. And you’re underfunding an area that is predominantly Black and brown communities that are, I think, a sleeping giant of the Democratic Party in the South.” North Carolina has eluded Democrats, unlike other southern states. Virginia has voted for a Democrat for president every election since Mr Obama’s first victory, though it elected a Republican governor in 2021, while Georgia voted for a Democrat for the first time since 1992 when Mr Biden won it in 2020 and it now has two Democratic Senators. Ms Clayton’s youth may befuddle some, and she said she never imagined she’d be a state party chairwoman. “It’s allowed me to be able to say everything that I’ve ever wanted to do on behalf of a Democratic Party,” she said. “And I think that that’s a really empowering place to be. And it’s going to inspire, I hope, more young people to realise that this world that we’re living in is ours to change the reality of.” Since assuming the leadership post, Democrats received a gut punch when Tricia Cotham, a Democratic state legislator, switched parties, giving Republicans a veto-proof majority in the legislature. At the state’s GOP convention last weekend, she was feted as a hero and Mr Pence gave her a shout-out. That enabled them to pass a 12-week abortion ban and override Mr Cooper’s veto. In addition, during the convention, Mr Trump touted how he won the state twice and continued to repeat his lies about a stolen election. Ms Clayton said that she wants North Carolina to be a firewall against election lies. “And for me, the case that I'm making is that, we don't want to give election deniers a two-week window to make that case. We want to make sure this election is wrapped up on the November night,” she said. Still, she added that she is not being a defeatist. “I know it feels like that right now, I know that the defeatist nature of or the Republican extremism is hard to come out of right now,” she said. “But we have to, and we have to snap back as a population and, and being able to say we need to run somebody everywhere.” Read More GOP senator Thom Tillis is pushing back on Trump on guns. Why the North Carolina Republican think it’s time to act ‘It’s making them angrier’: North Carolina Republicans rally around Trump after indictment ‘Everybody needs to support Trump’: Ex-president’s indictment overshadows DeSantis in North Carolina Ivanka and Jared split over attending Trump 2024 launch – follow live Why was Donald Trump impeached twice during his first term? Four big lies Trump told during his 2024 presidential announcement

An overview of the media in Peru, including links to broadcasters and newspapers.

Lawyers for former President Donald Trump are in "ongoing negotiations" with the Fulton County District attorney's office regarding details of his surrender, two sources familiar with the talks tell CNN.

By Patricia Zengerle WASHINGTON The Democratic and Republican leaders of the U.S. Senate expressed support for continued assistance

During a flight from Florida to Chile, Captain Ivan Andaur suddenly collapsed and died, despite swift emergency care from the flight crew

Former President Donald Trump has returned to campaigning in South Carolina after a weekend spent issuing threats to the press, leveling multiple accusations of treason and claiming he could design a better fighter jet than the military