Abstract
This is an important book. Reference to the Anthropocene in its title suggests an esoteric work of interest only to a group of specialist academics. But this is not the case. The formation and development of the Earth has traditionally been described by reference to rock structures and formations. This is done in geological time, the most recent era being the Cenozoic era, going back some 65 million years. This era covered many epochs, including the last ice age some two-and-a-half million years ago, followed by the Holocene, the epoch humans have enjoyed for the last 12,000 years or so. 1
In an early chapter, Brisman and South define the ‘Anthropocene’ as a: ‘proposed new geological epoch characterised by the unprecedented impact of human activities on the Earth’s atmosphere and ecology’ (p. 26). In the history of life on Earth, the ‘Anthropocene’ must be seen from the perspective that modern day humans as we know them only evolved about 200,000 years ago. Interestingly, these authors point out that there is now a proposal before the Anthropocene working group for the International Commission on Stratigraphy, the international body that defines Earth’s geological time scale, to formalize the term although debate in this regard continues. Amid the debates about humans’ relationship to nature, the so-called ‘benefits’ of technical mastery and what we have done to the planet, the same authors toy with definitions and wryly observe that the term ‘Obscenecene’ (p. 29) better depicts reality.
More generally, the book advocates taking a holistic approach to meeting the challenges of the Anthropocene. Virtually all the chapters emphasize inter-connectedness in examining how human activity has shaped the way the planet has evolved and been transformed. This is done through a criminological lens focusing on how humans and human activity has impacted the environment, its deterioration, loss of biodiversity and so on. Inter-connectedness between varied planetary agents, both human and non-human, is a theme that runs throughout the book. Thus, in arguing for a new form of ecologically based regulation, including the formal recognition of the crime of ecocide, Fiona Haines and Christine Parker point out that ‘humans, business, governments, animals, trees and oceans are all connected and embedded in a closed loop of local and planetary ecosystems’ (p. 82). They do so in a chapter using climate change as a case study to assess the potential role of criminalization and ecological regulation.
Environmental change is no better depicted than by the phenomenon of climate change. This is also taken up in a cutting-edge and forthright chapter titled ‘Carbon criminals, ecocide and climate justice’. Here, Rob White also uses the term ‘ecocide’ in showing how the activities of transnational corporations and others are akin to crimes against humanity. In the context of time horizons, it is pertinent to note that crimes against humanity and genocide only became accepted as crimes in international law at the Nuremburg trials – a mere ‘blip’ ago even if we speak only of the time in which Homo sapiens has evolved. In the context of climate change, White also points out that ‘the reality is that those least responsible to remedy the effects of climate change, are the worst affected by it’ (p. 50).
Inter-connectedness is also a theme adopted by Monique Marks and others who persuasively argue for the removal, both metaphorical and literal, of walls in a case study of Durban in South Africa. A related aspect is that virtually all the chapters indirectly or directly raise the need for adopting a multi-disciplinary approach in thinking about contemporary problems. The final chapter of the book is dedicated to the ‘Politics of the Anthropocene: Lessons for criminology’ and is also founded on the seemingly intractable problem of climate change. Here, Janet Chan reiterates the view that to adapt to the climate challenge will require a fundament shift in the boundaries of the social sciences and natural sciences. She concludes the chapter by interrogating four inter-related lessons that criminology can learn from the politics of the Anthropocene; these relate to scientific authority, knowledge and politics, psychological distance and non-human actants or ‘actors’.
All in all, in confronting the wicked problem of the Anthropocene through the discipline of criminology, a pertinent question posed by Pat O’Malley is whether the term ‘criminology’ should be abandoned in favour of ‘environmentally conscious security studies’ (p. 107). The book ought to be read by a wide variety of disciplines both in the humanities and sciences as well as by environmental managers, policy makers, government officials and students. But ultimately in this era of environmental change, the book is particularly pertinent to the layperson, whether the urban city dweller, rural fieldworker or subsistence farmer. Whatever direction criminology takes, the editors must be congratulated for having drawn upon some of the leading contemporary criminologists of our time and produced a wonderfully thought provoking and relevant book.