Uncharted: The golden spike

Discovery

BBC

Science, Technology

4.3 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 3 February 2025

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

At a conference in Mexico, one scientist’s outburst sparks a global quest to find a ‘golden spike’ - the boundary marking the shift into a new geological period dominated by humans, not volcanoes or asteroids. From plastics and concrete to nuclear fallout, the data they uncover reveals a planet profoundly altered. But can they convince their colleagues and the world of the extent of this transformation? Meanwhile, in a small Italian city nestled in the Apennine mountains, a series of low-level tremors raise the question: Is this just a passing phase, or a warning of something much more devastating?

Transcript

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0:00.0	Before you listen to this BBC podcast, I want to tell you why I love podcasting. Hi, my name's Tommy Dixon,
0:06.3	and I make podcasts for the BBC. I'm a big fan of stories, always loved a good book. But when I started
0:12.0	commuting for my first job, I discovered podcasts. I was blown away by how a creative idea and the right
0:17.8	mixture of sounds could take you into a whole new world full of incredible stories. You know, the type that make you go, wow. And that kind of inspired me to
0:25.2	give it a go myself, which, to cut a long story short, led to a BBC training scheme and a whole
0:29.9	new career giving other people that exact same feeling. So if you want to hear amazing stories
0:34.1	that make you go wow, like I did, they're just a tap or click away on BBC
0:38.0	Sounds.
0:41.7	Guernavaka, Mexico, in the year 2000.
0:45.6	This is a meeting of Earth scientists and Paul Crutson is getting cross.
0:52.0	He's already a Nobel Prize winner, known for his breakthrough work on the ozone layer.
0:56.6	He's doing his best to listen,
0:58.6	but the speakers are referring over and over again
1:01.1	to something called the Holocene,
1:04.1	the geological time period stretching back about 12,000 years.
1:09.4	But Paul believes that the world is now radically different.
1:13.5	Talking as if it isn't is missing something fundamental,
1:17.5	something really urgent.
1:19.6	He shoots up.
1:21.1	Stop saying the Holocene, he barks.
1:23.5	We're not in the Holocene anymore.
1:26.1	But one attendee ventures cautiously, if we're no longer in the Holocene anymore. But one attendee ventures cautiously,
	...

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