Abstract
The Anthropocene: A Multidisciplinary Approach provides an accessible but critical overview of the multiple disciplines engaging with questions about the predicament of the Anthropocene, from the geological concept to the existential challenges it presents. The Anthropocene is the proposed epoch in which the human species has become the dominant geological force on the planet, leading to a distinct new stage in Earth’s c.4.54-billion-year history. Although fundamentally a geological concept, the Anthropocene is unique in that human activity has led to the abrupt changes – known as the Great Acceleration – to climate, sea level, biological productivity, and a variety of other important frameworks that support life on Earth. As such, the Anthropocene concept brings about a range of questions and challenges that are both natural and human. The concept has drawn from, and drawn the interest of, a great variety of disciplines, all of which are needed to begin to grasp the Anthropocene in all its dimensions. As the authors put it: “[. . .] reality, even the encompassing reality of the Anthropocene, dictates no single comprehensive planetary story; instead, there are many ways of looking back and, we hope, more than one way of moving forward” (p. xi). The authors of this book take on this enormous task, reviewing key contributions and debates that range from the geological, atmospheric, Earth Systems, biological and evolutionary sciences to the social, political and economic sciences, and the humanities.
The book opens with The Multidisciplinary Anthropocene, a chapter emphasizing the range of knowledge and expertise needed to grasp the vast set of challenges posed by the Anthropocene, not least of which is the issue of scale. “Figuring out how to navigate the challenge of scale – both integrated scales and sprawling scales – is a pressing imperative in Anthropocene discussions” (p. 11). The authors show a way, in a broad but concise manner, of articulating the range of disciplinary specializations, while connecting them to contemporary social, political and environmental concerns. Following this chapter, the book proceeds in what can be described as three parts: (1) Chapters 2 and 3 focus on the geological history of the planet to provide the fundamental context for the Anthropocene; (2) Chapters 4 and 5 explain how transformations to the climate and the biosphere within the Earth System are crucial to understanding the Anthropocene; and (3) Chapters 6, 7, and 8 explore the Anthropos of the Anthropocene, economics and planetary limits, and some of the existential threats that the Anthropocene presents.
Chapter 2 provides The Geological Context of the Anthropocene within the Geological Time Scale (GTS) of the planet. It details the traditions and patterns of geology through which Earth’s history is understood and explains prior planetary transformations in order to place the Anthropocene in geological time. Chapter 3 then describes the Geological Time Unit of the Anthropocene and the Great Acceleration. It reviews how the GTS was built, and discusses some of the markers used to locate and define particular units. The Anthropocene concept was first introduced in 2000 by atmospheric chemist Paul Crutzen to suggest that changes to the chemistry of the air and oceans, together with the perturbed biosphere, indicated that the Holocene had come to an end. To be accepted as a Geological Time Unit, however, physical evidence and appropriate standard of markers are required that locate a Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) – often referred to as the ‘golden spike’. The multidisciplinary Anthropocene Working Group is pursuing formalization, with the post-war period of nuclear intensification signaling this marker.
The fourth chapter, The Anthropocene and Climate Change, shows how climate change – and global warming – is one of the most important aspects of transformation of Earth Systems. It emphasizes that climate change and the Anthropocene are not synonymous and that global warming is but one aspect of a variety of phenomena that constitute the Anthropocene. Nonetheless, climate change has been one of the drivers of planetary change in Earth’s history and, due the rapid warming effects of human activity, it is explored in particular detail. Chapter 5, The Anthropocene and the Biosphere’s Transformation, describes the ways in which humans have reorganized the distribution of living organisms at a scale unprecedented in Earth’s history. Much of this has been driven by increased human consumption of the biosphere and appropriation of energy to such an extent that the planet is at risk of ecological collapse. The authors, therefore, argue for a more mutualistic relationship with the Earth System.
Chapter 6, The Anthropos of the Anthropocene, begins to explore the human sphere from the perspective of the humanist disciplines: Palaeoanthropology, Archaeology, Anthropology, and History. This chapter shows how a simultaneous attention to humanity’s multiplicity, its coherence as a geological force, and how these two approaches are in tension with one another, present political and philosophical challenges that must be thoroughly engaged with to both understand and develop responses to the Anthropocene predicament. It also elaborates how the traditionally humanist disciplines have turned their critical analytic attention to the non-human worlds with which humans are entangled. The disciplines draw attention to the ways in which colonial projects and globalization have created local-global interconnections that are critical to understanding the challenges facing both human and non-human worlds.
Chapter 7, The Economics and Politics of Planetary Limits, provides an historical analysis of humanity and nature as fundamental economic and political characteristics of Modernity that created the conditions for the Anthropocene predicament. It describes two economic responses to the environmental challenges of the Anthropocene, the first of which, Environmental Economics, draws nature into the concepts of market and risk, reproducing the problems that have arisen from the pursuit of limitless growth. The second, Ecological Economics, treats the market as subordinate to nature and politics, rather than independent of it. It not only recognizes limits, but prioritizes well-being over growth, and suggests that well-being promotes equity, which in turn is less harmful to the environment. Importantly, the authors recognize that disparities between the Global North and Global South require different measures and approaches to address the predicament of Anthropocene. The final chapter, The Existential Challenges of the Anthropocene, discusses some of the new philosophical, political, economic and cultural challenges at both the individual and collective level that arise from the Anthropocene. Ultimately, multi-faceted, multi-scalar challenges of the Anthropocene require rigorous, critical, and precise tools. While becoming an expert in each field is beyond any individual’s reach, an ecology of scholarship is forming to address the emergent, entangled challenges of facing the planet, and life on the planet.
The Anthropocene: A Multidisciplinary Approach offers a rich, but broad sketch of such an ecology. The authors do an incredible job of synthesizing the range of disciplinary foci and research, summarizing the debates within those fields, and perhaps most importantly, making the connections and differences between disciplinary and ideological approaches explicit. This book should be required introductory reading for anyone interested in learning about the Anthropocene, and particularly for those concerned about the broad but intertwined challenges facing humanity, our environments, and the planet.