Age of the Humans?

As the class readings this week show, there is a lot of evidence that humans have profoundly altered the planet.  This BBC article:

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-35259194
reports on the scientific panel of experts that is trying to decide if these changes are profound enough to officially declare a new geologic epoch called the Anthropocene.  The panel is also trying to settle details like when exactly the Anthropocene should be defined as starting.
 The Panel's interim findings have just been published in Science:
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/351/6269/aad2622

Currently, we are residing in the epoch classified as the Holocene that began about 12,000 years ago, which was preceded by the Pleistocene.