What is the Anthropocene?

“The Anthropocene: Conceptual and Historical Perspectives”

Authors:
• Will Steffen, was a chemist and former affiliate of the Climate Change Institute,
The Australian National University in Canberra, Australia
• Jacques Grinevald, philosopher, epistemologist and historian of scientific and
technological development. A fellow of the Geological Society of London and a
member of the Anthropocene Working Group of the International Commission on
Stratigraphy.
• Paul Crutzen, was a Dutch meteorologist and former Director of the Max Planck
Institute for Chemistry who won the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1955.
• John McNeil, an American environmental historian, author, and professor at
Georgetown University.
Key Points
• Argues for the formal recognition of the “Anthropocene” as a new epoch in the
Earth’s history
• Defines the concept of the Anthropocene; identifies the emergence of
Anthropocene discourse
• Provides a historical account of the emergence of the Anthropocene through
reference to empirical evidence
• Attempts to answer the question: “is human activity significant enough to drive
the earth into a new geological epoch”
• Explores recent trends in research in the 21st century
“Anthropocene”
• Etymology: Greek “anthropos” (= human) + “cene” - kainos (= new)
• Denoting a new geological period
• 2000: PJ Crutzen & E. Stoermer introduce the concept “to capture the
quantitative shift in the relationship between humans and the global
environment” p. 843 in The Future of Nature
• The term suggests two main ideas:
1. The earth is moving out of its current geological epoch, called the
Holocene
2. Human activity is largely responsible for this exit from the Holocene
= Humankind has become a global geological force
“Anthropocene”
The Anthropocene defines Earth's most recent geologic time period as being
human-influenced, or anthropogenic, based on overwhelming global evidence that
atmospheric, geologic, hydrologic, biospheric and other earth system processes are
now altered by humans.”
“The Anthropocene was conceived by Earth-system scientists to capture the very
recent rupture in Earth’s history arising from the impact of human activity on the
Earth system as a whole.
“The human imprint on the global environment has now become so large and
active that it rivals some of the great forces of Nature in its impact on the
functioning of the Earth system” (W. Steffen et al. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A 369, 842–
867; 2011)
Geologic Timescale
Evidence
i. Ozone hole – anthropogenic cause
ii. Changes in the carbon cycle, biogeochemical or element cycles
(nitrogen, phosphorus, sulphur, etc.) hydrological cycle that are
fundamental to life on earth – all anthropogenic cause
iii. 6th major extinction event in earth history – likely
anthropogenic cause
• Human activity has:
1. Pushed extinction rates of animals and plants far above the long-term average.
The Earth is on course to see 75% of species become extinct in the next few centuries if
current trends continue.
2. Increased levels of climate-warming CO2 in the atmosphere at the fastest rate for
66m years, with fossil-fuel burning pushing levels from 280 parts per million before the
industrial revolution to 400ppm and rising today.
3. Put so much plastic in our waterways and oceans that microplastic particles are
now virtually ubiquitous, and plastics will likely leave identifiable fossil records for future
generations to discover.
4. Doubled the nitrogen and phosphorous in our soils in the past century with
fertiliser use. This is likely to be the largest impact on the nitrogen cycle in 2.5bn years.
5. Left a permanent layer of airborne particulates in sediment and glacial ice such as
black carbon from fossil fuel burning
Precursors of Anthropocene Discourse
• Anthropogenic transformation of the biosphere into the “noösphere”
(Suess, E. La Face de la Terre, Paris, early 1920s)
• Noosphere: based on Greek “noos” (= mind) – postulated sphere or stage of evolutionary
development based on consciousness especially in relation to its influence on the biosphere
and in relation to evolution
• Proposal of the “Anthropozoic Era” by Italian geologist and Catholic priest (Stoppani)
• The “Psychozoic era” – the era of reason, influence of consciousness and collective human
reason upon geochemical processes
(Verdansky, V. Carbon and Living Matter in the Earth’s Crust. Geochemistry, 28, p. 66)
• Talks of “technosphere” and the more recent “industrial metabolism”
• “Man” acting as homo sapiens faber:
i. Exerting influence on elements necessary for technology and the creation of civilized forms of life
ii. Modifying natural eco-systems to gain advantage
The Beginning of the Anthropocene
• Industrial Revolution [origin in Great Britain in the late 18th century or thermo-industrial
revolution of 19th century Western civilization – end of agriculture as the most dominant
human activity.
i. A world dominated by a growing energy bottleneck (earth’s energy sources tightly constrained in
magnitude and location)
ii. Discovery (and exploitation) of fossil fuels shattered bottleneck
iii. Haber-Bosch process synthesizing reactive nitrogen compounds from unreactive nitrogen in the
atmosphere – creating fertilizer out of the air
iv. Conversion of natural eco-systems – large dams diverting water from river

1800 – 2000:
 Human population grew from 1 billion to 6 billion
 Energy use grew roughly 40-fold
 Economic production grew 50-fold
“A century has elapsed since the invention of the steam engine, and we
are only just beginning to feel the depths of the it gave us. ... In
thousands of years, when, seen from the distance, only the lines of the
present age will still be visible, our wars and our revolutions will count
for little, even supposing they are remembered at all; but the steam
engine, the procession of inventions of every kind that accompanied it,
will perhaps spoken of as we speak of the bronze or of the chipped stone
of pre-historic times: it will serve to define an age.’

Bergson, H. (1911, 1944) Creative Evolution, trans. by Arthur Mitchell,

New York, The Modern Library
The Great Acceleration (1945 – 2000+)
• Post WWII trajectory :
• Explosions in mobility – automobile, airplane
• Globalisation, global economy – mines and plantations
• New International Institutions
• Neoliberal economic principles, open trade and capital flows, market
economy
• Spectrum of new technologies
• Partnerships among government, industry, academia
• Over half the human population (3+ billion) living in urban areas
• Rise in greenhouse gas concentrations, increase in reactive nitrogen, episodes
of acid rain, increase in CO2 concentrations
The Beginning of the Anthropocene
Confronting the Anthropocene
• Toxic Anthropocene
• We are entering the Anthropocene haphazardly, without planning or consideration, and we should
lament it. We are experiencing a veritable global tragedy of the commons. A more descriptive name
would be Anthro-blitz. Man is at the seismic epicenter of the planetary upheaval.
• Limit & Adapt
• We inevitably are entering the Anthropocene; so, we should get going and make the best of a bad
situation. We will have to adapt to shifting climates. But we also can and should push back and limit how
far and with what zeal we enter the Anthropocene. We ought to shrink the human footprint; or putting
another spin on the metaphor, conserve more places where humans leave nothing except their
footprints
• Anthropocene, Hurrah!
• The way forward is to embrace an ever-increasing human domination of the landscape, a perpetual
enlargement of the bounds of the human empire. Humans are in the driver’s seat. We must not see the
Anthropocene as a crisis, but as the beginning of a new geological epoch ripe with human-directed
opportunity