TY - SER AU - Carson, James Taylor TI - Algae and oxygen, humans and carbon: A Precambrian analogue for the Anthropocene PY - 2019/// PB - Sage KW - Anthropocene, KW - cyanobacteria KW - Great Oxygenation Event N2 - Algae and oxygen, humans and carbon: A Precambrian analogue for the Anthropocene James Taylor CarsonFirst Published May 29, 2019 Research Article https://doi.org/10.1177/2053019619852165 Article information Article has an altmetric score of 1 Full Access Article Information Volume: 6 issue: 1-2, page(s): 162-166 Article first published online: May 29, 2019; Issue published: April 1, 2019 James Taylor Carson Griffith University School of Humanities Languages and Social Science, Australia Corresponding Author: James Taylor Carson, Griffith University School of Humanities Languages and Social Science, Macrossan, Nathan, Queensland, Australia. Email: j.carson@griffith.edu.au Abstract In 2003 Paul Crutzen and Will Steffen asserted that across Earth’s 4.5-billion-year history no analogue could be found for the Anthropocene. An analogue can, however, be located in the dim Precambrian past when, through oxygenic photosynthesis, cyanobacteria produced enough oxygen to alter the composition and character of the Earth System. The ‘Great Oxygenation Event’ that followed wiped out much of Earth’s anaerobic life while giving rise to all subsequent aerobic life. It also offers a clear comparison with the Anthropocene that implicates how we think about our current predicament ER -