From the fear and self-loathing in Capetown department, Josh had this take on it awhile back.

Phys.org reports:

The Anthropocene, or “new age of man,” would start from the mid-20th century if their recommendation—submitted Monday to the International Geological Congress in Cape Town, South Africa—is adopted.

That approval process is likely to take at least two years and requires ratification by three other academic bodies.

But after seven years of deliberation, the 35-strong Working Group has unanimously recognised the Anthropocene as a reality, and voted 30-to-three (with two abstentions) for the transition to be officially registered.

“Our working model is that the optimal boundary is the mid-20th century,” said Jan Zalasiewicz, a geologist at the University of Leicester.

“If adopted—and we’re a long way from that—the Holocene would finish and the Anthropocene would formally be held to have begun.”

Scientists refer to the period starting from 1950 as the “Great Acceleration”, and a glance at graphs tracking a number of chemical and socio-economic changes make it obvious why.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2016-08-anthropocene-scientists.html#jCp

From the Times:

The Working Group on the Anthropocene (AWG), which is meeting in Cape Town this week, is proposing that the starting date for the new epoch should be set for around 1950.

The group’s committee of 35 members voted by a majority of 20 to recognise the new time division as an epoch, rather than the lower ranked age, such as a subdivision of the Holocene, or a higher ranked period like the Jurassic or Cretaceous.

The search is now on to find what geologists call a “golden spike”, a physical reference point that can be dated and taken as a representative starting point for the Anthropocene epoch.

A river bed in Scotland, for example, is taken to be the representative starting point for the Holocene epoch.