2021/12/20
621호 군자(君子)의 현대적 의미는 ‘자유로운 인간’ 즉 진보적 인간이다. 이남곡 (인문운동가) 공자의 군자(君子)론을 앞으로 몇차례 연재하려 한다. 내가 보기에는 공자가 이야기하는 ‘군자’에 대한 깊은 오해가 오랫동안 있어 왔다. 첫째는 공자는 군자와 소인을 대립적이고 고정적인 것으로 파악하지 않고, 그 다름을 인간 의식의 진화 방향에서 서술할 뿐 당위(當爲)로 강요하지 않았을 뿐 아니라, 그 스스로도 미 치지 못함을 토로할 정도로 이상적인 인간상으로 제시했다. 둘째는 군자(君子)는 한자의 뜻이 의미하는 것처럼 신분계급제 사회에서 군주(君主)의 아들 즉, 귀족이나 관료 등 지배계급을 의미하는 말이었는데, 공자는 이 말의 내용을 혁명적으로 그러나 조용하게 바꿨다. 즉 신분의 귀천이 아니라, 그의 인격의 성숙이 군자의 조건이라고 바꿈으로서 신분계급을 넘어서는 사상적(제도까지 바꾸는 것은 그 시대에는 엄두를 못냈지만) 지평을 열었다. 나 스스로 진보적인 인문운동가라는 정체성을 가진 사람으로서, 10여 년 전 어떤 자리에서 ‘진보’에 대해 이야기한 것을 소개하는 것으로 말문을 열려고 한다. “오랫 동안 한국사회의 진보를 위해 헌신해 오신 두 분 선생님을 모시고, 그 동안 1년 반여 인문학 강좌라는 모임을 통해 인연을 맺어온 여러분들과 함께 ‘진보의 미래’라는 주제로 오 붓한 자리를 만들게 된 것을 기쁘게 생각합니다. 사실 이런 주제를 선택하게 된 것은 4.11 총선을 치루면서 나타난 이른바 ‘진보정당의 위 기’와 무관하지는 않습니다만, 제 개인적으로는 이런 현상이나 목전의 대선을 앞둔 진보 정 치 세력의 전략 전술적 목표를 넘어서 꼭 한번 다루어 보고 싶은 테마였습니다. 왜냐하면 요즘의 이런 실태들은 오래 전부터 객관적인 정세의 변화에 의해서가 아니라, 이 른바 진보를 표방하는 정치세력의 이데올로기와 행동양식(문화) 속에 이미 ‘쇠퇴나 위기’가 내재되어 있었기 때문입니다. 사실과 맞지 않는 신념체계(이데올로기)와 그에 바탕을 둔 낡은 정서 및 행동양식, 인류의식 의 일반적 진보에도 못 미치는 권력지향적 의식 및 헤게모니를 둘러싼 진영 싸움 등은 엄밀 하게 말하면 진정한 의미에서의 진보와는 인연이 없는 것입니다. 이렇게 말씀드리는 것은 결코 사회적 부정의나 불평등, 착취나 독재와 싸워온 한국 진보세 력의 역할을 깎아내리거나 경시하는 것과는 거리가 멉니다. 오히려 그런 역사적 과제들을 자랑스럽게 수행해온 사람들과 조직들이 새로운 시대의 흐름을 실사구시하지 못하고, 낡은 시민제보~~!!!! 땅은 정해져 있고 인구는 계속 빠져… 답답하다 공동묘지처럼 죽은 골목… 어떤점이 억지일까 교통지옥을 당해… 억지 기사네 안해줘도 욕 해줘도 지랄 ~~ 대중들에게 줄것이 있어야. 서로에… 소통신문을 빛내는 좋은 글들을 쓰… 그냥 내버려두세요.어차피 익산시 … 스물 몇 살에 문화재 문제를 깔끔하… 소통신문 외부 기고가 참 좋네요. … 바다 소리 가족, 그 영원한 이름 딩크족으로 산다는 것! 새 오고싶은 도시의 경쟁력, ‘익산… 이데올로기와 정서에서 벗어나지 못함으로서 새로운 세상을 만들어가는 전위적 역할을 하 지 못하고 있는 현실을 어떻게 하면 넘어설 수 있을까 하는 충정에서 말하는 것입니다. 사실 저는 ‘진보의 위기’라는 말 자체가 잘못 쓰이고 있다는 자각에서 출발해야 한다고 생각 합니다. 진보는 인류의 자유와 행복을 확대하는 방향으로 세상이 변화되어 가는 것을 말합니다. 그 과정이 순탄치 않고, 수 없이 많은 희생과 투쟁을 통해서 이루어져 온 것이 사실입니다. 그런 과정을 통해 인류는 ‘자유 확대’의 길을 걸어 왔습니다. 제가 말하는 자유는 ‘자연계의 제약으로부터 생존을 위한 물질적 자유’ ‘억압과 착취, 불평등으로부터 벗어나는 사회적 자 유’ ‘의식을 가진 고등생명체인 인간만이 갖는 관념의 부자유로부터 해방되려고 하는 관념 계의 자유’를 포괄하는 것입니다. 저는 그런 점에서 인류는 진보의 길을 걸어 왔다고 대긍정하는 입장입니다. 앞으로도 그럴 것이라고 생각하고 있습니다. 다만 지금은 과거의 좌우나 진보·보수로 나누어진 진영논리에서가 아니라 인류라는 종(種) 의 입장에서 의식(意識), 생활양식, 사회구조의 일대 변혁이 없으면 어쩌면 종(種) 자체가 소 멸하거나 문명 이전의 혼돈으로 돌아갈 수 있다는 것이 위기라고 생각합니다. 이것은 그 동안의 자유를 위한 인류의 오래된 여정, 그리고 인간이 갖고 있는 특성에 기인하 는 것입니다. 지금 우리들 의식 속에 남아 있는, 어쩌면 아직도 지배하고 있는 오래된 진영논리로 이야기 하는 ‘진보의 위기’는 사실의 세계와는 맞지 않습니다. 특정 이데올로기나 정파의 위기를 진보의 위기로 혼동하는 착각에서 벗어나는 것이 어쩌면 진정한 진보의 출발점이 될지 모르 겠습니다. 지금의 진정한 위기라면 그것은 과거의 진영 논리가 아닌, 인류 전체의 보편적 진화에 대한 위기를 말하는 것입니다. 그 위기를 넘어서 앞으로 나아가는데, 지금까지의 진보세력이 먼저 스스로를 대전환함으로 서, 새로운 시대를 개척하는데 선구적 역할을 할 수 있으면 정말 좋겠습니다. 그렇지 못하면 ‘진보’라는 이름표를 붙일 이유를 찾지 못하게 되겠지요.” “새로운 시대의 진보는 독재를 낳게 되어 있는 ‘민주집중제’의 오류에서 완전히 벗어날 뿐 아 니라, 지금과 같이 편을 갈라 결국 다수가 지배하는 불완전한 민주주의로부터 한 단계 더 나아가야 합니다. 이런 방식을 창조하고 발전시키는데, 진보가 선두에 서야 합니다. 비록 소수당이라도 ‘조화의 정치’를 선도하는 것이 진정한 진보당의 역할이라고 생각합니다. 약자가 무슨 ‘조화’나 ‘상생’을 이야기하는 것은 굴종이나 예속이 아닌가? 하는 생각을 하는 사람도 있겠지만, 미래 사회의 주체라는 주인의식으로 약자의식이나 피해자의식을 넘어서 는 것이 진보정당의 도덕적 힘이 되어야하고, 그것이 결국 진보정치의 가장 큰 자산으로 될 수 있다고 생각합니다. 또한 계급투쟁론을 비롯한 낡은 사상 이론의 주술(呪術)에서 벗어나야 합니다. 계급 발생을 비롯한 계급이론에 대해서 이야기하려고 하는 것이 아닙니다. 지금도 계급이 있고, 투쟁이 있습니다. 또 그 사회의 계급구조나 제도가 사람들의 의식(意 識)에 중요한 역할을 합니다. 그러나 역사를 계급투쟁의 과정이라거나 존재가 의식을 결정한다는 식으로 단순화하는 것 은 일면적인 사실을 전면적이고 보편적인 것으로 단정(斷定)하는 것으로 인간과 사회의 실 상에 부합하지 않습니다. 실제로는 온갖 이익에 집착하고 노동의 양극화를 낳고 있으면서도 ‘투쟁’과 ‘연대’의 빛바랜 기치를 들고 있는 일부 현실을 보면서 실사구시해야 합니다. 저는 ‘계급조화론’이 지금의 현실에서는 맞다고 봅니다. 무슨 소리냐고 펄쩍 뛰실 분들도 많겠지요. 왜냐하면 지금까지 그런 이야기는 계급적 모순 을 호도하여 투쟁을 약화시키고 지배계급의 지배를 영속화하려는 음모에서 나왔다고 생각 하기 때문이지요. 그러나 지금은 가장 진보적인 정당이라면 자본가까지도 견인할 수 있는 새로운 사회에 대한 지향과 도덕적 힘을 가지고 계급조화론을 당당하게 선도적으로 이야기할 수 있어야 한다고 생각합니다.” 나는 과거의 진보가 사회적·물적·제도적 진보에 초점이 맞추어져 있고, 그것이 인간의 자유 를 확대하는 바탕이었다면, 지금처럼 물질적 수준이 상당한 수준으로 진척되고, 자유민주주 의가 절차나 제도로서 어느 정도 뿌리를 내린 사회에서는 ‘인간 자체의 진보’ 즉 ‘의식·문화 의 진보’가 사회적 진보를 견인하는 시대로 되고 있다고 생각한다. 그렇다고 무슨 ‘의식(마음)이 존재를 결정한다’는 류(流)의 사고방식을 말하려는 것은 아니 관련기사가 없습니다. 이름 패스워드 다. 다만 그 상대적 비중이 달라졌다는 것을 실사구시적 입장에서 말하는 것이다. 그런 점에서 어떤 성현(聖賢)보다도 공자의 사상은 자유로운 인간 즉 진보적 인간이 어떤 사람이어야 하는지에 대해 상상력과 영감을 주기에 충분하다고 생각한다. 군자(君子)의 현대적 의미는 ‘자유로운 인간’ 즉 진보적 인간이다.
2021/12/19
알라딘: 스님, 제 생각은 다릅니다 도법 묻고 담정 답하다
![](https://image.aladin.co.kr/product/28453/7/letslook/K462835617_b.jpg)
스님, 제 생각은 다릅니다
도법 묻고 담정 답하다
도법, 신상환 (지은이) 비(도서출판b) 2021-12-15
269쪽
152*223mm (A5신)
416g
책소개
한국 실천불교의 상징이라고 할 수 있는 실상사 도법 스님과 중관학자인 담정 신상환이 2019년 봄부터 2020년 가을까지 10여 차례 만나서 중과 중도에 대한 대담을 나눴다. 실천불교와 교학불교를 각각 대표할 수 있는 두 지성의 대담이다. 그 결과물을 묶은 것이 이 책 <스님, 제 생각은 다릅니다>이다.
이 책은 크게 3부로 편성되었다. 제1부는 중도로 부처님 생애에 대해서, 제2부에서는 중도로 불교와 중관사상의 기본 교리를, 제3부는 중도로 한국 불교를 논한다. 그리고 책 뒤에는 중과 중도에 대한 이해를 돕기 위해 참고 자료를 덧붙였다.
접기
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목차
ㅣ서문ㅣ
도법 스님: 친구 따라 강남 간다 9
담정 신상환: 강남 땅값이 비싸 강을 건너기로 했다 17
제1부 중도로 부처님 생애를 논하다
인도 사상의 근간인 업과 윤회 23
부처님의 가르침은 응병여약, 표월지지 33
부처님께서 사용하신 언어 36
부처님의 상가 운영과 중도의 실천 38
부처님의 제자들에 대한 해석 43
제2부 중도로 불교 교리를 논한다
1. 부처님의 반열반 이후의 불교 53
역사 해석의 공시성과 통시성 53
경론의 형성과정 55
대승불교의 출발점 57
교학의 체계화는 무아이론에서부터 60
2. 중도로 중도를 논하다 83
중도와 여실지견 89
‘중도’라는 개념의 위치 100
전통에 따른 중도의 역사적 해석과 차이 108
다시 부처님의 재세 시로 134
본래법인 연기법? 139
십이연기와 삼세양중인과 147
3. ��중론��과 이제론 151
부처님과 14난 151
용수와 부처님, 그리고 시대 상황 156
용수의 사유와 ��중론�� 160
이제론 171
제3부 중도로 한국 불교를 논하다
선의 과잉 문제 197
한역 경전권 불교의 변화 선종과 교종 199
선종 이전의 중국 불교 200
21세기 불심관을 어떻게 세울 것인가? 206
ㅣ참고자료ㅣ 중과 중도에 관하여 213
접기
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책속에서
P.94
담정: 내가 관심을 기울이는 부분은 스님의 중도의 실천행이 아니다. 스님께서 중도를 여실지견이라고 말씀하시는 순간, 이론적인 문제는 이론적인 문제로 해결해야 하는데 그렇지 않아서, 어떤 문제가 발생한다는 점이다. 지금 스님은 연기 실상의 세계와 언설(言說)의 세계의 경계를 흩뜨리고 있다. 중도를 여실지견이라고 표현하는 것은 진보가 아닌 후퇴다!
P.97
도법: 나는 붓다의 가르침에 따라 중도적으로 접근하면 복잡하지 않게 진실을 잘 드러냄으로써 문제를 잘 정리할 수 있다고 생각한다. 그렇게 하는 것을 ‘여실지견행(如實知見行)’이라고 부르는 것이다. 잘 알다시피 여실이라는 말은 내가 만든 개념이 아니고, 경전에 있는 개념이다. 나는 ‘있는 그대로!’라는 말의 뜻을 이렇게 해석하고 있다.
P.118
도법: 중도는 가야 할 길이고, ‘중’은 있는 그대로의 사실. 그렇게 보면 되지 않을까? 여실지견을 중도행의 하나로 보면, 여기서 보는 것은 행위이고 그 과정에서 드러난 것이 연기라고 볼 수 있지 않을까? 그렇게 하면 붓다 생애의 맥락과도 잘 맞는다고 여겨진다.
P.119
담정: 그것은 그야말로 스님의 자의적인 해석이다. 스님은 지금까지 우리가 추적해왔던 중과 중도의 차이를 다시 뭉뚱그리고 있다. 중과 중도는 다른 것이다!
중도는 딱 하나다. 팔정도의 다른 이름일 뿐이다. 그것이 중도가 경전에 등장하는 유일무이한 장면이다.
P.181
담정: 본질적인 것이 있다는 것. 또는 사성제를 강조하기 위한 수식어 정도였을 것이다. 그렇지만 용수 보살 이후, 중기 중관파를 지나면서 이제론은 사성제보다 더욱 중요한 개념으로 자리를 잡는다.
P.182~183
도법: 나는 이제로 설명하고자 하는 내용이 표월지지라고 본다. 달은 진제, 손가락은 속제인 것이다. …… 담정이 21세기 ��중론��을 저술했으면 한다. 그러면 좀 더 명료해질 것 같다. 우리는 불교를 파사현정(破邪顯正)의 가르침이라 한다. 담정에게 논파라는 말을 많이 듣는데, 그 논파도 바로 이 파사현정을 위한 것 같다.
P.183
담정: 그렇다. 스님 말씀처럼 ��중론��을 제대로 이해하기 위해서는 ‘논파’라는 말보다는 먼저 ‘고통에서 벗어남’이라는 부처님의 뜻을 명심해야 한다.
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저자 소개
지은이: 도법
저자파일 신간알리미 신청
최근작 : <스님, 제 생각은 다릅니다>,<종교와 평화>,<내가 본 부처> … 총 26종 (모두보기)
1949년 제주에서 태어나, 17세가 되던 해 자의 반 타의 반으로 출가했다. 66년 금산사에서 출가하여 69년 해인사 강원을 거치고, 이후 13년 동안 봉암사와 송광사 등 제방선원에서 선수행을 했다. 87년엔 금산사 부주지를 맡았고, 90년엔 청정불교운동을 이끈 개혁승가 결사체 선우도량을 만들었다. 95년부터 실상사 주지를 맡아 인간화 생명살림의 길을 열어가기 위해 98년 실상사 소유의 땅 3만 평을 내놓고 귀농전문학교를 설립했다. 1998년 말 한국 불교를 대표하는 조계종이 기존의 총무원과 정화개혁회의로 나뉘어 다툴 때 총무원장 권한대행으로 분규를 마무리짓고 미련없이 실상사로 내려갔다. 99년엔 인드라망생명공동체를 창립하면서 귀농운동 차원을 넘어 생활협동조합?대안교육?생명평화운동 등으로 활동영역을 넓혀갔다. 2004년 실상사 주지 소임을 내려놓은 후, 생명평화 탁발순례의 길을 떠났다. 이후 5년 동안 3만 리를 걸으며 8만 명의 사람을 만나 생명평화의 가치를 전했다. 2010년부터 대한불교조계종 화쟁위원회 위원장, 자성과 쇄신 결사 추진본부 본부장 등 종단 소임을 맡아 다툼없고 평화로운 사회로 가는 길을 내다 2018년 실상사로 내려와 다시 실상사 사부대중공동체, 마을공동체를 일구고 있다. 현재 지리산 실상사 회주이자 인드라망생명공동체 상임대표로 있다.
저서로는 《화엄경과 생명의 질서》 《길 그리고 길》 《화엄의 길, 생명의 길》 《그물코 인생 그물코 사랑》 《내가 본 부처》 《망설일 것 없네 당장 부처로 살게나》 《부처를 만나면 부처를 죽여라》 《지금 당장》 등이 있다.
1968년 전남 광양에서 출생. 순천고등학교(1986), 아주대학교 환경공학과(1993)를 졸업하고, 카라코람 산맥을 넘어 파키스탄을 통해서 인도로 들어간 후 인도?티벳?중국 등을 여행하였다(1993~1998).
티벳 불교를 공부하기 위하여 타고르 대학으로 알려진 인도의 비스바 바라띠 대학의 인도-티벳학과에서 티벳학 석사 및 같은 학교에서 산스끄리뜨어 준석사 등을 마쳤으며 캘커타 대학의 빠알리어과에서 철학박사 학위를 취득했다(1999-2008).
타고르 대학으로 알려진 비스바 바라띠 대학의 인도-티벳학과 조교수로 재직하였으며 귀국하여 함양 안의 고반재에서 중관학당을 열어 용수의 중관사상과 불교사상사, 티벳불교 등을 연구하는 가운데 티벳 경전 한글 번역 등 역경(譯經)에 전념하고 있다.
민족문화대백과 사전의 대승불교와 중관사상, 팔불중도 등의 집필자이기도 한 역자의 주요 저서로는 2011년 상반기 문광부 우수학술 도서로 선정되었던 산스끄리뜨어.티벳어.한역 ≪중론≫을 비교 분석한 ≪용수의 사유≫, 티벳?타클라마칸 사막.고비 사막의 자전거 여행 기록인 ≪세계의 지붕 자전거 타고 3만리≫ 등이 있고, 역서로는 티벳 운문학의 정수인 싸꺄 빤디따의 ≪선설보장론≫의 해제본인 ≪풀어 쓴 티벳 현자의 말씀≫, 용수의 ≪권계왕송≫의 완역본인 ≪친구에게 보내는 편지≫ 등이 있다.
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출판사 제공 책소개
“실천불교와 교학불교의
중中과 중도中道에 대한 대담”
한국 실천불교의 상징이라고 할 수 있는 실상사 도법 스님과 중관학자인 담정 신상환이 2019년 봄부터 2020년 가을까지 10여 차례 만나서 중(中)과 중도(中道)에 대한 대담을 나눴다. 실천불교와 교학불교를 각각 대표할 수 있는 두 지성의 대담이다. 그 결과물을 묶은 것이 이 책 <스님, 제 생각은 다릅니다>이다.
이 책은 크게 3부로 편성되었다. 제1부는 중도로 부처님 생애에 대해서, 제2부에서는 중도로 불교와 중관사상의 기본 교리를, 제3부는 중도로 한국 불교를 논한다. 그리고 책 뒤에는 중과 중도에 대한 이해를 돕기 위해 참고 자료를 덧붙였다.
이 책에서 도법 스님은 불교적 실천을 중도행이라 부르고 있다. 1970년대 선방에서 비롯된 깨달음의 문제를 해결하지 못해 1990년대부터 지리산 실상사를 중심으로 생명 평화 운동을 시작한 이후 지금까지 살아 있는 불교의 필요성에 강조의 방점을 찍는다. 이와 달리 신상환은 중도라는 그 이름마저도 방편교설로 가설적인 것, 희론(戱論)이라 부르는 중관학파의 태도로 일관한다.
연기법의 핵심이 중도라고 주장하는 도법 스님과 연기실상의 체화와 언어의 한계를 강조하는 신상환은 이 문제에 대해 치열하게 논쟁하면서도 실천 불교의 중요성에 대해서는 모두 인정하고 있다. 실천불교를 위해서 명확한 개념 정리를 바탕으로 한 교학불교를 강조하는 신상환과 달리 도법 스님은 그것이 현실 속에서 대중들에게 쉽고 명확하게 이해되는 것이 중요하다고 강조한다.
두 대담자는 실천의 중요성, 삶의 변화에 유용한 불교를 강조하지만, 그것을 대하는 각자의 자세는 다르다. 최소한 이 둘이 주고받는 대담 속에서 부처님의 생애에 대한 철저한 탐구와 경론의 다양한 해석, 그리고 ‘중과 중도’가 다른 것임을 경론을 통해 보여주는 ‘참고 자료’ 등은 한국 불교의 발전을 위한 대담임에는 틀림없다.
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2021/12/15
Kang-nam Oh | 불교와 성경 1, 2
2021/12/11
Anthropocene - Wikipedia
Anthropocene
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The Anthropocene (/ˈæn.θrə.pəˌsin, ænˈθrɒp.ə-/ AN-thrə-pə-seen, an-THROP-ə-)[1][2][3][failed verification] is a proposed geological epoch dating from the commencement of significant human impact on Earth's geology and ecosystems, including, but not limited to, anthropogenic climate change.[4][5][6][7][8]
As of December 2021, neither the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) nor the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) has officially approved the term as a recognised subdivision of geologic time,[9][10] although the Anthropocene Working Group (AWG) of the Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy (SQS) of the ICS voted in April 2016 to proceed towards a formal golden spike (GSSP) proposal to define the Anthropocene epoch in the geologic time scale (GTS) and presented the recommendation to the International Geological Congress in August 2016.[11] In May 2019, the AWG voted in favour of submitting a formal proposal to the ICS by 2021,[12] locating potential stratigraphic markers to the mid-twentieth century of the common era.[13][12][14] This time period coincides with the start of the Great Acceleration, a post-WWII time period during which socioeconomic and Earth system trends increase at a dramatic rate,[15] and the Atomic Age.
Various start dates for the Anthropocene have been proposed, ranging from the beginning of the Agricultural Revolution 12,000–15,000 years ago, to as recently as the 1960s. The ratification process is still ongoing, and thus a date remains to be decided definitively, but the peak in radionuclides fallout consequential to atomic bomb testing during the 1950s has been more favoured than others, locating a possible beginning of the Anthropocene to the detonation of the first atomic bomb in 1945, or the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty in 1963.[12]
Contents
General[edit]
An early concept for the Anthropocene was the Noosphere by Vladimir Vernadsky, who in 1938 wrote of "scientific thought as a geological force".[16] Scientists in the Soviet Union appear to have used the term "anthropocene" as early as the 1960s to refer to the Quaternary, the most recent geological period.[17] Ecologist Eugene F. Stoermer subsequently used "anthropocene" with a different sense in the 1980s[18] and the term was widely popularised in 2000 by atmospheric chemist Paul J. Crutzen,[19] who regards the influence of human behavior on Earth's atmosphere in recent centuries as so significant as to constitute a new geological epoch.
In 2008, the Stratigraphy Commission of the Geological Society of London considered a proposal to make the Anthropocene a formal unit of geological epoch divisions.[6][20] A majority of the commission decided the proposal had merit and should be examined further. Independent working groups of scientists from various geological societies have begun to determine whether the Anthropocene will be formally accepted into the Geological Time Scale.[21]
The pressures we exert on the planet have become so great that scientists are considering whether the Earth has entered an entirely new geological epoch: the Anthropocene, or the age of humans. It means that we are the first people to live in an age defined by human choice, in which the dominant risk to our survival is ourselves.
—Achim Steiner, UNDP Administrator[22]
The term "anthropocene" is informally used in scientific contexts.[23] The Geological Society of America entitled its 2011 annual meeting: Archean to Anthropocene: The past is the key to the future.[24] The new epoch has no agreed start-date, but one proposal, based on atmospheric evidence, is to fix the start with the Industrial Revolution c. 1780, with the invention of the steam engine.[20][25] Other scientists link the new term to earlier events, such as the rise of agriculture and the Neolithic Revolution (around 12,000 years BP). Evidence of relative human impact – such as the growing human influence on land use, ecosystems, biodiversity, and species extinction – is substantial; scientists think that human impact has significantly changed (or halted) the growth of biodiversity.[26][27][28][29][30] Those arguing for earlier dates posit that the proposed Anthropocene may have begun as early as 14,000–15,000 years BP, based on geologic evidence; this has led other scientists to suggest that "the onset of the Anthropocene should be extended back many thousand years";[31]: 1 this would make the Anthropocene essentially synonymous with the current term, Holocene.
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/78/Trinity_Test_Fireball_16ms.jpg/220px-Trinity_Test_Fireball_16ms.jpg)
In January 2015, 26 of the 38 members of the International Anthropocene Working Group published a paper suggesting the Trinity test on 16 July 1945 as the starting point of the proposed new epoch.[32] However, a significant minority supports one of several alternative dates.[32] A March 2015 report suggested either 1610 or 1964 as the beginning of the Anthropocene.[33] Other scholars point to the diachronous character of the physical strata of the Anthropocene, arguing that onset and impact are spread out over time, not reducible to a single instant or date of start.[34]
A January 2016 report on the climatic, biological, and geochemical signatures of human activity in sediments and ice cores suggested the era since the mid-20th century should be recognised as a geological epoch distinct from the Holocene.[35]
The Anthropocene Working Group met in Oslo in April 2016 to consolidate evidence supporting the argument for the Anthropocene as a true geologic epoch.[36] Evidence was evaluated and the group voted to recommend "Anthropocene" as the new geological epoch in August 2016.[11] Should the International Commission on Stratigraphy approve the recommendation, the proposal to adopt the term will have to be ratified by the IUGS before its formal adoption as part of the geologic time scale.[37]
In April 2019, the Anthropocene Working Group announced that they would vote on a formal proposal to the International Commission on Stratigraphy, to continue the process started at the 2016 meeting.[14] In May 2019, 29 members of the 34 person AWG panel voted in favour of an official proposal to be made by 2021. The AWG also voted with 29 votes in favour of a starting date in the mid 20th century. Ten candidate sites for a Global boundary Stratotype Section and Point have been identified, one of which will be chosen to be included in the final proposal.[12][13] Possible markers include microplastics, heavy metals, or the radioactive nuclei left by tests from thermonuclear weapons.[38]
Etymology[edit]
The name Anthropocene is a combination of anthropo- from the Ancient Greek ἄνθρωπος (anthropos) meaning 'human' and -cene from καινός (kainos) meaning 'new' or 'recent'.[39][40]
As early as 1873, the Italian geologist Antonio Stoppani acknowledged the increasing power and effect of humanity on the Earth's systems and referred to an 'anthropozoic era'.[41]
Although the biologist Eugene F. Stoermer is often credited with coining the term anthropocene, it was in informal use in the mid-1970s[citation needed]. Paul J. Crutzen is credited with independently re-inventing and popularising it. Stoermer wrote, "I began using the term 'anthropocene' in the 1980s, but never formalised it until Paul contacted me."[42] Crutzen has explained, "I was at a conference where someone said something about the Holocene. I suddenly thought this was wrong. The world has changed too much. So I said: 'No, we are in the Anthropocene.' I just made up the word on the spur of the moment. Everyone was shocked. But it seems to have stuck."[43]: 21 [44] In 2008, Zalasiewicz suggested in GSA Today that an anthropocene epoch is now appropriate.[20]
Nature of human effects[edit]
Homogenocene[edit]
Homogenocene (from old Greek: homo-, same; geno-, kind; kainos-, new;) is a more specific term used to define our current epoch, in which biodiversity is diminishing and biogeography and ecosystems around the globe seem more and more similar to one another mainly due to invasive species that have been introduced around the globe either on purpose (crops, livestock) or inadvertently. This is due to the newfound globalism that humans participate in, as species traveling across the world to another region was not as easily possible in any point of time in history as it is today.[45]
The term Homogenocene was first used by Michael Samways in his editorial article in the Journal of Insect Conservation from 1999 titled "Translocating fauna to foreign lands: Here comes the Homogenocene."[46]
The term was used again by John L. Curnutt in the year 2000 in Ecology, in a short list titled "A Guide to the Homogenocene",[47] which reviewed Alien species in North America and Hawaii: impacts on natural ecosystems by George Cox. Charles C. Mann, in his acclaimed book 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created, gives a bird's-eye view of the mechanisms and ongoing implications of the homogenocene.[48]
Biodiversity[edit]
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/19/Flii_globe.png/450px-Flii_globe.png)
The human impact on biodiversity forms one of the primary attributes of the Anthropocene.[50] Humankind has entered what is sometimes called the Earth's sixth major extinction.[51][52][53][54][55][56] Most experts agree that human activities have accelerated the rate of species extinction.[28][57] The exact rate remains controversial – perhaps 100 to 1000 times the normal background rate of extinction.[58][59] A 2010 study found that
marine phytoplankton – the vast range of tiny algae species accounting for roughly half of Earth's total photosynthetic biomass – has declined substantially in the world's oceans over the past century. From 1950 alone, algal biomass decreased by around 40%, probably in response to ocean warming[60]
– and that the decline had gathered pace in recent years.[60] Some authors have postulated that without human impacts the biodiversity of the planet would continue to grow at an exponential rate.[26]
Increases in global rates of extinction have been elevated above background rates since at least 1500, and appear to have accelerated in the 19th century and further since.[5] A New York Times op-ed on 13 July 2012 by ecologist Roger Bradbury predicted the end of biodiversity for the oceans, labelling coral reefs doomed: "Coral reefs will be the first, but certainly not the last, major ecosystem to succumb to the Anthropocene."[61] This op-ed quickly generated much discussion among conservationists; The Nature Conservancy rebutted Bradbury on its website, defending its position of protecting coral reefs despite continued human impacts causing reef declines.[62]
In a pair of studies published in 2015, extrapolation from observed extinction of Hawaiian snails of the family Amastridae, led to the conclusion that "the biodiversity crisis is real", and that 7% of all species on Earth may have disappeared already.[63][64] Human predation was noted as being unique in the history of life on Earth as being a globally distributed 'superpredator', with predation of the adults of other apex predators and with widespread impact on food webs worldwide.[65] A study published in May 2017 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences noted that a "biological annihilation" akin to a sixth mass extinction event is underway as a result of anthropogenic causes. The study suggested that as much as 50% of animal individuals that once lived on Earth are already extinct.[66][67] A different study published in PNAS in May 2018 says that since the dawn of human civilization, 83% of wild mammals have disappeared. Today, livestock makes up 60% of the biomass of all mammals on earth, followed by humans (36%) and wild mammals (4%).[68][69] According to the 2019 Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services by IPBES, 25% of plant and animal species are threatened with extinction.[70][71][72] According to the World Wildlife Fund's 2020 Living Planet Report, 68% of wildlife populations have declined between 1970 and 2016 as a result of overconsumption, population growth and intensive farming, and the report asserts that "the findings are clear. Our relationship with nature is broken."[73][74] aHowever, a 2020 study, by Leung et. al. including Maria Dornelas, disputed the findings of the Living Planet Report, finding that the 68% decline number was being influenced down by a very small amount extreme outliers and when these were not included, the decline was less steep, or even stable if other outliers were not included.[75] A 2021 paper published in Frontiers in Conservation Science, which cites both of the aforementioned studies, says "population sizes of vertebrate species that have been monitored across years have declined by an average of 68% over the last five decades, with certain population clusters in extreme decline, thus presaging the imminent extinction of their species."[76]
Biogeography and nocturnality[edit]
Permanent changes in the distribution of organisms from human influence will become identifiable in the geologic record. Researchers have documented the movement of many species into regions formerly too cold for them, often at rates faster than initially expected.[77] This has occurred in part as a result of changing climate, but also in response to farming and fishing, and to the accidental introduction of non-native species to new areas through global travel.[5] The ecosystem of the entire Black Sea may have changed during the last 2000 years as a result of nutrient and silica input from eroding deforested lands along the Danube River.[78][79]
Researchers have found that the growth of the human population and expansion of human activity has resulted in many species of animals that are normally active during the day, such as elephants, tigers and boars, becoming nocturnal to avoid contact with humans.[80][79]
Climate[edit]
One geological symptom resulting from human activity is increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) content. During the glacial–interglacial cycles of the past million years, natural processes have varied CO2 by approximately 100 ppm (from 180 ppm to 280 ppm)[81] As of 2013, anthropogenic net emissions of CO2 have increased atmospheric concentration by a comparable amount: From 280 ppm (Holocene or pre-industrial "equilibrium") to approximately 400 ppm,[82] with 2015–2016 monthly monitoring data of CO2 displaying a rising trend above 400 ppm.[81] This signal in the Earth's climate system is especially significant because it is occurring much faster,[83] and to a greater extent, than previous, similar changes. Most of this increase is due to the combustion of fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and gas, although smaller fractions result from cement production and from land-use changes (such as deforestation).
Geomorphology[edit]
Changes in drainage patterns traceable to human activity will persist over geologic time in large parts of the continents where the geologic regime is erosional. This involves, for example, the paths of roads and highways defined by their grading and drainage control. Direct changes to the form of the Earth's surface by human activities (quarrying and landscaping, for example) also record human impacts.
It has been suggested[by whom?] that the deposition of calthemite formations exemplify a natural process which has not previously occurred prior to the human modification of the Earth's surface, and which therefore represents a unique process of the Anthropocene.[84] Calthemite is a secondary deposit, derived from concrete, lime, mortar or other calcareous material outside the cave environment.[85] Calthemites grow on or under man-made structures (including mines and tunnels) and mimic the shapes and forms of cave speleothems, such as stalactites, stalagmites, flowstone etc.
Stratigraphy[edit]
Sedimentological record[edit]
Human activities like deforestation and road construction are believed to have elevated average total sediment fluxes across the Earth's surface.[5] However, construction of dams on many rivers around the world means the rates of sediment deposition in any given place do not always appear to increase in the Anthropocene. For instance, many river deltas around the world are actually currently starved of sediment by such dams, and are subsiding and failing to keep up with sea level rise, rather than growing.[5][86]
Fossil record[edit]
Increases in erosion due to farming and other operations will be reflected by changes in sediment composition and increases in deposition rates elsewhere. In land areas with a depositional regime, engineered structures will tend to be buried and preserved, along with litter and debris. Litter and debris thrown from boats or carried by rivers and creeks will accumulate in the marine environment, particularly in coastal areas. Such man-made artifacts preserved in stratigraphy are known as "technofossils".[5][87]
Changes in biodiversity will also be reflected in the fossil record, as will species introductions. An example cited is the domestic chicken, originally the red junglefowl Gallus gallus, native to south-east Asia but has since become the world's most common bird through human breeding and consumption, with over 60 billion consumed annually and whose bones would become fossilised in landfill sites.[88] Hence, landfills are important resources to find "technofossils".[89]
Trace elements[edit]
In terms of trace elements, there are distinct signatures left by modern societies. For example, in the Upper Fremont Glacier in Wyoming, there is a layer of chlorine present in ice cores from 1960's atomic weapon testing programs, as well as a layer of mercury associated with coal plants in the 1980s.[citation needed] From 1945 to 1951, nuclear fallout is found locally around atomic device test sites, whereas from 1952 to 1980, tests of thermonuclear devices have left a clear, global signal of excess 14
C
, 239
Pu
, and other artificial radionuclides.[citation needed] The highest global concentration of radionuclides was in 1965, one of the dates which has been proposed as a possible benchmark for the start of the formally defined Anthropocene.[90]
Human burning of fossil fuels has also left distinctly elevated concentrations of black carbon, inorganic ash, and spherical carbonaceous particles in recent sediments across the world. Concentrations of these components increases markedly and almost simultaneously around the world beginning around 1950.[5]
Temporal limit[edit]
"Early anthropocene" model[edit]
William Ruddiman has argued that the Anthropocene began approximately 8,000 years ago with the development of farming and sedentary cultures.[91] At that point, humans were dispersed across all continents except Antarctica, and the Neolithic Revolution was ongoing. During this period, humans developed agriculture and animal husbandry to supplement or replace hunter-gatherer subsistence.[92] Such innovations were followed by a wave of extinctions, beginning with large mammals and terrestrial birds. This wave was driven by both the direct activity of humans (e.g. hunting) and the indirect consequences of land-use change for agriculture. Landscape-scale burning by prehistoric hunter-gathers may have been an additional early source of anthropogenic atmospheric carbon.[93]
Ruddiman also claims that the greenhouse gas emissions in-part responsible for the Anthropocene began 8,000 years ago when ancient farmers cleared forests to grow crops.[94][95][96] Ruddiman's work has, in turn, been challenged with data from an earlier interglaciation ("Stage 11", approximately 400,000 years ago) which suggests that 16,000 more years must elapse before the current Holocene interglaciation comes to an end, and thus the early anthropogenic hypothesis is invalid.[97] Furthermore, the argument that "something" is needed to explain the differences in the Holocene is challenged by more recent research showing that all interglacials are different.[98]
Moreover, scholars have claimed that the land change and greenhouse gas emissions caused by Neolithic farming practices do not account for a large enough systems change to denote new epochal designation.[99] This claim is the basis for an assertion that an early date for the proposed Anthropocene term does account for a substantial human footprint on Earth.[100][101] Others have argued that the Early Anthropocene Hypothesis only provides a cursory view of Native American farming practices prior to European colonization, which did not result in the same land change or greenhouse gas emissions as European and Asian agriculture of the same period. Thus, if precolonial Native American farming was studied in relation to the hypothesis, the European colonization of the Americas would be seen as the epoch's starting point.[102][103]
Antiquity[edit]
One plausible starting point of the Anthropocene could be at c. 2,000 years ago, which roughly coincides with the start of the final phase of Holocene, the Sub Atlantic.[104]
At this time, the Roman Empire encompassed large portions of Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. In China the classical dynasties were flowering. The Middle kingdoms of India had already the largest economy of the ancient and medieval world. The Napata/Meroitic kingdom extended over the current Sudan and Ethiopia. The Olmecs controlled central Mexico and Guatemala, and the pre-Incan Chavín people managed areas of northern Peru.[105] Although often apart from each other and intermixed with buffering ecosystems, the areas directly impacted by these civilisations and others were large. Additionally, some activities, such as mining, implied much more widespread perturbation of natural conditions.[106][107] Over the last 11,500 years or so humans have spread around Earth, increased in number, and profoundly altered the material world. They have taken advantage of global environmental conditions not of their own making. The end of the last glacial period – when as much as 30% of Earth's surface was ice-bound – led to a warmer world with more water (H2O). Although humans existed in the previous Pleistocene epoch, it is only in the recent Holocene period that they have flourished. Today there are more humans alive than at any previous point in Earth's history.[7]
European colonization of the Americas[edit]
Maslin and Lewis argue that the start of the Anthropocene should be dated to the Orbis Spike, a trough in carbon dioxide levels associated with the arrival of Europeans in the Americas. Reaching a minimum around 1610, global carbon dioxide levels were depressed below 285 parts per million, largely as a result of sequestration due to forest regrowth in the Americas. This was likely caused by indigenous peoples abandoning farmland following a sharp population decline due to initial contact with European diseases – around 50 million people or 90% of the indigenous population may have succumbed. For Maslin and Lewis, the Orbis Spike represents a GSSP, a kind of marker used to define the start of a new geological period. They also go on to say that associating the Anthropocene to European arrival in the Americas makes sense given that the continent's colonization was instrumental in the development of global trade networks and the capitalist economy, which played a significant role in initiating the Industrial Revolution and the Great Acceleration.[108][109]
A number of other anthropologists, geographers, and postcolonial, settler colonial, and Indigenous theorists have linked the Anthropocene to the rise of European colonialism.[110][103][111][109][112][113][114] Because of these arguments, it has been suggested that the epoch should instead be called "The Kleptocene" in order to call "attention to colonialism’s ongoing theft of land, lives (both human and nonhuman), and materials" that are "in large part responsible for contemporary ecological crisis."[115]
Industrial Revolution[edit]
Crutzen proposed the Industrial Revolution as the start of Anthropocene.[41] Lovelock proposes that the Anthropocene began with the first application of the Newcomen atmospheric engine in 1712.[116] The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change takes the pre-industrial era (chosen as the year 1750) as the baseline related to changes in long-lived, well mixed greenhouse gases.[117] Although it is apparent that the Industrial Revolution ushered in an unprecedented global human impact on the planet,[118] much of Earth's landscape already had been profoundly modified by human activities.[119] The human impact on Earth has grown progressively, with few substantial slowdowns.
Great Acceleration[edit]
In May 2019 the twenty-nine members of the Anthropocene Working Group (AWG) proposed a start date for the Epoch in the mid-twentieth century, as that period saw "a rapidly rising human population accelerated the pace of industrial production, the use of agricultural chemicals and other human activities. At the same time, the first atomic-bomb blasts littered the globe with radioactive debris that became embedded in sediments and glacial ice, becoming part of the geologic record." The official start-dates, according to the panel, would coincide with either the radionuclides released into the atmosphere from bomb detonations in 1945, or with the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty of 1963.[120]
Anthropocene markers[edit]
A marker that accounts for a substantial global impact of humans on the total environment, comparable in scale to those associated with significant perturbations of the geological past, is needed in place of minor changes in atmosphere composition.[121][122]
A useful candidate for this purpose is the pedosphere, which can retain information of its climatic and geochemical history with features lasting for centuries or millennia.[123] Human activity is now firmly established as the sixth factor of soil formation.[124] It affects pedogenesis directly by, for example, land levelling, trenching and embankment building, organic matter enrichment from additions of manure or other waste, organic matter impoverishment due to continued cultivation and compaction from overgrazing. Human activity also affects pedogenesis indirectly by drift of eroded materials or pollutants. Anthropogenic soils are those markedly affected by human activities, such as repeated ploughing, the addition of fertilisers, contamination, sealing, or enrichment with artefacts (in the World Reference Base for Soil Resources they are classified as Anthrosols and Technosols). They are recalcitrant repositories of artefacts and properties that testify to the dominance of the human impact, and hence appear to be reliable markers for the Anthropocene. Some anthropogenic soils may be viewed as the 'golden spikes' of geologists (Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point), which are locations where there are strata successions with clear evidences of a worldwide event, including the appearance of distinctive fossils.[104] Drilling for fossil fuels has also created holes and tubes which are expected to be detectable for millions of years.[125] The astrobiologist David Grinspoon has proposed that the site of the Apollo 11 Lunar landing, with the disturbances and artifacts that are so uniquely characteristic of our species' technological activity and which will survive over geological time spans could be considered as the 'golden spike' of the Anthropocene.[126]
An October 2020 study coordinated by University of Colorado at Boulder found that distinct physical, chemical and biological changes to Earth's rock layers began around the year 1950. The research revealed that since about 1950, humans have doubled the amount of fixed nitrogen on the planet through industrial production for agriculture, created a hole in the ozone layer through the industrial scale release of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), released enough greenhouse gasses from fossil fuels to cause planetary level climate change, created tens of thousands of synthetic mineral-like compounds that do not naturally occur on Earth, and caused almost one-fifth of river sediment worldwide to no longer reach the ocean due to dams, reservoirs and diversions. Humans have produced so many millions of tons of plastic each year since the early 1950s that microplastics are "forming a near-ubiquitous and unambiguous marker of Anthropocene".[127][128] The study highlights a strong correlation between global human population size and growth, global productivity and global energy use and that the "extraordinary outburst of consumption and productivity demonstrates how the Earth System has departed from its Holocene state since ~1950 CE, forcing abrupt physical, chemical and biological changes to the Earth’s stratigraphic record that can be used to justify the proposal for naming a new epoch—the Anthropocene."[128]
A December 2020 study published in Nature found that the total anthropogenic mass, or human-made materials, outweighs all the biomass on earth, and highlighted that "this quantification of the human enterprise gives a mass-based quantitative and symbolic characterization of the human-induced epoch of the Anthropocene."[129][130]
Recently, a group of geologists, archaeologists, environmental scientists and geographers, including current ICS Secretary General Phil Gibbard, have proposed to recognize the Anthropocene as an ongoing geological event analogous to the Great Oxidation Event, rather than as an epoch in the GTS.[131]
In culture[edit]
Humanities[edit]
The concept of the Anthropocene has also been approached via humanities such as philosophy, literature and art. In the scholarly world, it has been the subject of increasing attention through special journals,[132] and conferences,[133][134] and disciplinary reports.[135] The Anthropocene, its attendant timescale, and ecological implications prompt questions about death and the end of civilisation,[136] memory and archives,[137] the scope and methods of humanistic inquiry,[138] and emotional responses to the "end of nature".[139]
Historians have actively engaged the Anthropocene. In 2000, the same year that Paul Crutzen coined the term, world historian John McNeill published Something New Under the Sun,[140] tracing the rise of human societies' unprecedented impact on the planet in the twentieth century.[140] In 2001, historian of science Naomi Oreskes revealed the systematic efforts to undermine trust in climate change science and went on to detail the corporate interests delaying action on the environmental challenge.[141][142] Both McNeill and Oreskes became members of the Anthropocene Working Group because of their work correlating human activities and planetary transformation.
In 2009, Dipesh Chakrabarty pointed to the dilemma that the Anthropocene poses for the practice of history: On the one hand, it spells "the collapse of the age-old humanist distinction between natural history and human history" yet, on the other, societies and individuals do not experience themselves as a "species".[143] In 2014, Julia Adeney Thomas highlighted problems of scale and value as the reasons for this irresolvable tension between human stories and scientific ones.[144] Since 2007, historians and scientists have been actively collaborating on multidisciplinary approaches to the Anthropocene.[145] Together with the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society (RCC), the Deutsches Museum (Munich, Germany) hosted a major special exhibition on the Anthropocene from December 2014 – September 2016, "Welcome to the Anthropocene: The Earth in our hands",[146] which was then digitized as a virtual exhibition on the RCC’s Environment & Society Portal.[146][147] In 2016, historians Christophe Bonneuil and Jean Baptiste-Fressoz published The Shock of the Anthropocene: The Earth, History and Us[148] in an attempt to provide "the first critical history of the Anthropocene" through engagement with the history of science, world history, and human development.[148]
As anthropogenic ecological crises and environmental disasters increase,[149] so too do emotional responses to these issues. The emotional responses are inherently adaptive and with appropriate support can lead to action and collective support. Evidence suggests that increase in reflective functioning and capacity for emotional processing can support the emotional responses through crisis, leading to stronger societal responses and individual resilience.[150]
Debates on the Anthropocene
Although the validity of "Anthropocene" as a scientific term remains disputed, its underlying premise, i.e., that humans have become a geological force, or rather, the dominant force shaping the Earth's climate, has found traction among academics and the public. The University of Cambridge, for example, offers a degree in Anthropocene Studies.[151] In the public sphere, the term "Anthropocene" has become increasingly ubiquitous in activist, pundit, and political discourses. Some who are critical of the term "Anthropocene" nevertheless concede that "For all its problems, [it] carries power."[152] The popularity and currency of the word has led scholars to label the term a "charismatic meta-category"[153] or "charismatic mega-concept."[154] The term, regardless, has been subject to a variety of criticisms from social scientists, philosophers, Indigenous scholars, and others.
The anthropologist John Hartigan has argued that due its status as a charismatic meta-category, the term "Anthropocene" marginalizes competing, but less visible, concepts such as that of "multispecies."[155] The more salient charge is that the ready acceptance of "Anthropocene" is due to its conceptual proximity to the status quo — that is, to notions of human individuality and centrality. Whereas the concept of "multispecies" decenters these notions by viewing the "human" as a species "entangled in copious folds of nonhumans, without which we would not exist" — e.g., bacteria, viruses, and fungi — the conceptual framework embedded in the term "Anthropocene," according to Hartigan, does not challenge anthropocentric humanism nor species individualism, ideologies which he takes to have enabled the climate crisis in the first place. The scholar Mark Bould has similarly criticized "Anthropocene" as a concept. The enormous temporal scale of the Anthropocene, Bould argues, potentially yields politically detrimental outcomes. More specifically, if the climate crisis is figured into the timeframe of a geological epoch, as opposed to decades, it might impede the sense of urgency needed to build the political will to act on the climate crisis. As Bould writes: "talking about a geological epoch invites awestruck recoil at sublime magnitudes, which is not necessarily a bad thing, since hubris should be clobbered once in a while, but also risks evasion and complacency."[156]
Other scholars appreciate the way in which the term "Anthropocene" recognizes humanity as a geological force, but take issue with the indiscriminate way in which it does. Not all humans are equally responsible for the climate crisis. To that end, scholars such as the feminist theorist Donna Haraway and sociologist Jason Moore, have suggested naming the Epoch instead as the "Capitalocene."[157][158][159] Such implies capitalism as the fundamental reason for the ecological crisis, rather than just humans in general.[160] Hartigan, Bould, and Haraway all critique what "Anthropocene" does as a term; however, Hartigan and Bould differ from Haraway in that they criticize the utility or validity of a geological framing of the climate crisis, whereas Haraway embraces it.
In addition to "Capitalocene," other terms have also been proposed by scholars to trace the roots of the Epoch to causes other than the human species broadly. Janae Davis, for example, has suggested the "Plantationocene" as a more appropriate term to call attention to the role that plantation agriculture has played in the formation of the Epoch, alongside Kathryn Yusoff's argument that racism as a whole is foundational to the Epoch. The Plantationocene concept traces "the ways that plantation logics organize modern economies, environments, bodies, and social relations." [161][162] [163] [164] In a similar vein, Indigenous studies scholars such as Métis geographer Zoe Todd have argued that the Epoch must be dated back to the colonization of the Americas, as this “names the problem of colonialism as responsible for contemporary environmental crisis.”[165] Potawatomi philosopher Kyle Powys Whyte has further argued that the Anthropocene has been apparent to Indigenous peoples in the Americas since the inception of colonialism because of "colonialism's role in environmental change."[166][114][167]
Other critiques of "Anthropocene" have focused on the genealogy of the concept. Todd also provides a phenomenological account, which draws on the work of the philosopher Sara Ahmed, writing: "When discourses and responses to the Anthropocene are being generated within institutions and disciplines which are embedded in broader systems that act as de facto 'white public space,' the academy and its power dynamics must be challenged."[168] Other aspects which constitute current understandings of the concept of the "Anthropocene" such as the ontological split between nature and society, the assumption of the centrality and individuality of the human, and the framing of environmental discourse in largely scientific terms have been criticized by scholars as concepts rooted in colonialism and which reinforce systems of postcolonial domination. To that end, Todd makes the case that the concept of "Anthropocene" must be indigenized and decolonized if it is to become a vehicle of justice as opposed to white thought and domination.
The scholar Daniel Wildcat, a Yuchi member of the Muscogee Nation of Oklahoma, for example, has emphasized spiritual connection to the land as a crucial tenet for any ecological movement.[169] Similarly, in her study of the Ladakhi people in northern India, the anthropologist Karine Gagné, detailed their understanding of the relation between nonhuman and human agency as one that is deeply intimate and mutual. For the Ladakhi, the nonhuman alters the epistemic, ethical, and affective development of humans — it provides a way of "being in the world."[170] The Ladakhi, who live in the Himalayas, for example, have seen the retreat of the glaciers not just as a physical loss, but also as the loss of entities which generate knowledge, compel ethical reflections, and foster intimacy. Other scholars have similarly emphasized the need to return to notions of relatedness and interdependence with nature. The writer Jenny Odell has written about what Robin Wall Kimmerer calls "species loneliness,"[171] the loneliness which occurs from the separation of the human and the nonhuman, and the anthropologist Radhika Govindrajan has theorized on the ethics of care, or relatedness, which govern relations between humans and animals.[172] Scholars are divided on whether to do away with the term "Anthropocene" or co-opt it.
Popular culture[edit]
- The concept gained attention of the public via documentary films[citation needed] such as The Antarctica Challenge: A Global Warning, The Polar Explorer, L'homme a mangé la Terre, Anthropocene: The Human Epoch and Anthropocene.
- David Grinspoon makes a further distinction in the Anthropocene, namely the "proto-Anthropocene" and "mature Anthropocene". He also mentions the term "Terra Sapiens", or Wise Earth.[173]
- In 2019, the English musician Nick Mulvey released a music video on YouTube named "In The Anthropocene".[174] In cooperation with Sharp's Brewery, the song was recorded on 105 vinyl records made of washed-up plastic from the Cornish coast.[175]
- The Anthropocene Reviewed is a podcast and book by author John Green, where he "reviews different facets of the human-centered planet on a five-star scale".[176]
- In 2015, the American death metal band Cattle Decapitation released its seventh studio album titled The Anthropocene Extinction.[177]
- In 2020, the artist Grimes released an album titled Miss Anthropocene.
See also[edit]
- Anthropocentrism
- Anthropogenic biomes
- Climate engineering
- Control of fire by early humans
- Defaunation
- Ecocriticism
- Geobiology
- Great Transition
- Holocene extinction
- Human overpopulation
- Hypoxia (environmental)
- International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme
- Meghalayan
- Novel ecosystem
- Overconsumption
- Planetary boundaries
- Plastic pollution
- Power Down: Options and Actions for a Post-Carbon World
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- ^ Haraway, Donna (2014). Davis, Heather; Turpin, Etienne (eds.). Art in the Anthropocene: Encounters Among Aesthetics, Politics, Environments and Epistemologies. Open Humanites Press. pp. 255–270. ISBN 978-1-78542-008-5.
- ^ Moore, Jason W., ed. (2016). Anthropocene or Capitalocene? Nature, history, and the crisis of capitalism. Oakland, CA: PM Press. ISBN 978-1629631486.
- ^ Davies, Jeremy (2016). The Birth of the Anthropocene. Oakland, CA: University of California Press. pp. 94–95. ISBN 9780520289970.
- ^ Hickel, Jason (2021). Less is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World. Windmill Books. pp. 39–40. ISBN 978-1786091215.
It was only with the rise of capitalism over the past few hundred years, and the breathtaking acceleration of industrialization from the 1950s, that on a planetary scale things began to tip out of balance.
- ^ "What is the Plantationocene?". Edge Effects Magazine. c. 2020.
- ^ Haraway, Donna (2015). "Anthropocene, Capitalocene, Plantationocene, Chthulucene: Making kin" (PDF). Environmental Humanities. 6: 159–165. doi:10.1215/22011919-3615934. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 July 2015.
- ^ Yusoff, Kathryn. A Billion Black Anthropocenes or None. University of Minnesota Press.
- ^ Davis, Janae; Moulton, Alex A.; Sant, Levi Van; Williams, Brian (2019). "Anthropocene, Capitalocene, … Plantationocene?: A Manifesto for Ecological Justice in an Age of Global Crises". Geography Compass. 13 (5): e12438. doi:10.1111/gec3.12438. ISSN 1749-8198.
- ^ Davis, Heather; Todd, Zoe (20 December 2017). "On the Importance of a Date, or, Decolonizing the Anthropocene". ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies. 16 (4): 761–780. ISSN 1492-9732.
- ^ Whyte, Kyle (2017). "Indigenous Climate Change Studies : Indigenizing Futures, Decolonizing the Anthropocene". English Language Notes. 55 (1): 153–162. ISSN 2573-3575.
- ^ Whyte, Kyle P. (1 March 2018). "Indigenous science (fiction) for the Anthropocene: Ancestral dystopias and fantasies of climate change crises". Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space. 1 (1–2): 224–242. doi:10.1177/2514848618777621. ISSN 2514-8486.
- ^ Todd, Zoe (2014). Davis, Heather; Turpin, Etienne (eds.). Art in the Anthropocene: Encounters Among Aesthetics, Politics, Environments and Epistemologies. Open Humanites Press. pp. 241–254. ISBN 978-1-78542-008-5.
- ^ Wildcat, Daniel (2009). "Red Alert!". fulcrum.bookstore.ipgbook.com. Fulcrum Pubishing.
- ^ Gagné, Karine (2019). "Caring for Glaciers". University of Washington Press. University of Washington Press. p. 162.
- ^ Odell, Jenny (2019). "How to Do Nothing". Melville House.
- ^ Govindrajan, Radhika (2018). Animal Intimacies. University of Chicago Press.
- ^ Grinspoon, David (20 December 2016). "Welcome to Terra Sapiens". Aeon Essays.
- ^ "In The Anthropocene" song from Nick Mulvey
- ^ CMU: Nick Mulvey releases vinyl made from recycled plastic washed up on Cornish beaches
- ^ "The Anthropocene Reviewed – WNYC Studios and Complexly". Spotify. Retrieved 13 May 2020.
- ^ Staff writer(s) (20 May 2015). "CATTLE DECAPITATION To Release 'The Anthropocene Extinction' This August Via Metal Blade Records" (Press release). Metal Blade Records. Retrieved 20 October 2020.
Further reading[edit]
- Bonneuil, Christophe; Fressoz, Jean-Baptiste.(2016) The Shock of the Anthropocene. The Earth, History and Us, Verso Books. Translated by David Fernbach. Originally published as L’événement Anthropocène: La terre, l’histoire et nous. Le Seuil 2013
- Davies, Jeremy (2016). The Birth of the Anthropocene. Oakland, CA, USA: University of California Press. ISBN 9780520289970.
- Dixon, Simon J; Viles, Heather A; Garrett, Bradley L (2018). "Ozymandias in the Anthropocene: the city as an emerging landform". Area. 50: 117–125. doi:10.1111/area.12358. ISSN 1475-4762.
- Edgeworth, Matt (October 2021). Brenneis, Don; Strier, Karen B. (eds.). "Transgressing Time: Archaeological Evidence in/of the Anthropocene". Annual Review of Anthropology. Annual Reviews. 50: 93–108. doi:10.1146/annurev-anthro-101819-110118. ISSN 1545-4290. S2CID 236363574.
- Ellis, Erle (2018). Anthropocene: A Very Short Introduction. 1. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/actrade/9780198792987.001.0001. ISBN 9780198792987.
- Ellis, Erle C.; Fuller, Dorian Q.; Kaplan, Jed O.; Lutters, Wayne G. (2013). "Dating the Anthropocene: Towards an empirical global history of human transformation of the terrestrial biosphere". Elementa. 1: 000018. doi:10.12952/journal.elementa.000018.
- Emmett, Robert, Thomas Lekan, eds. "Whose Anthropocene? Revisiting Dipesh Chakrabarty’s ‘Four Theses,’" RCC Perspectives: Transformations in Environment and Society 2016, no. 2. doi.org/10.5282/rcc/7421.
- Grinspoon, David (December 2016). "Welcome to Terra Sapiens". Aeon.
- Hamilton, Clive (2017). Defiant Earth: The Fate of Humans in the Anthropocene. Polity. ISBN 978-1509519750.
- Ialenti, Vincent. 2016. "Generation (Lexicon for An Anthropocene Yet Unseen)". Cultural Anthropology: Theorising the Contemporary. Archived from the original on 7 May 2016. Retrieved 13 April 2016.
- Kim, Rakhyun E. (2021). "Taming Gaia 2.0: Earth System Law in the Ruptured Anthropocene". The Anthropocene Review. https://doi.org/10.1177/20530196211026721
- Kim, Rakhyun E.; Klaus Bosselmann (2013). "International Environmental Law in the Anthropocene: Towards a Purposive System of Multilateral Environmental Agreements". Transnational Environmental Law. 2 (2): 285–309. doi:10.1017/S2047102513000149. S2CID 146464921.
- MacCormack, Patricia (2020). The Ahuman Manifesto: Activism for the End of the Anthropocene. Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN 978-1350081093.
- McArthur, Jo-Anne; Wilson, Keith, eds. (2020). Hidden: Animals in the Anthropocene. Lantern Publishing & Media. ISBN 978-1590566381.
- Purdy, Jedediah. (2015). "Anthropocene Fever". Aeon. pp. 1–9.
- Ripple WJ, Wolf C, Newsome TM, Galetti M, Alamgir M, Crist E, Mahmoud MI, Laurance WF (2017). "World Scientists' Warning to Humanity: A Second Notice". BioScience. 67 (12): 1026–1028. doi:10.1093/biosci/bix125.
- Ruddiman, William F. (December 2003). "The anthropogenic greenhouse era began thousands of years ago". Climatic Change. 61 (3): 261–293. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.651.2119. doi:10.1023/B:CLIM.0000004577.17928.fa. S2CID 2501894.
- Ruddiman, William F.; Stephen J. Vavrus & John E. Kutzbach (2005). "A test of the overdue-glaciation hypothesis" (PDF). Quaternary Science Reviews. 24 (1): 11. Bibcode:2005QSRv...24....1R. doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2004.07.010. Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 October 2006.
- Ruddiman, William F. (2005). Plows, Plagues, and Petroleum: How Humans Took Control of Climate. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-12164-2.
- Schmidt, G. A.; D. T. Shindel & S. Harder (2004). "A note on the relationship between ice core methane concentrations and insolation". Geophysical Research Letters. 31 (23): L23206. Bibcode:2004GeoRL..3123206S. doi:10.1029/2004GL021083.
- Schneider-Mayerson, Matthew (2017). "Some Islands Will Rise: Singapore in the Anthropocene". Resilience: A Journal of the Environmental Humanities. 4 (2): 166–184. doi:10.5250/resilience.4.2-3.0166. S2CID 158809548.
- Steffen, Will; Crutzen, Paul; McNeill, John (2007). "The Anthropocene: Are Humans Now Overwhelming the Great Forces of Nature?". AMBIO: A Journal of the Human Environment. 36 (8): 614–621. doi:10.1579/0044-7447(2007)36[614:taahno]2.0.co;2. hdl:1885/29029. PMID 18240674.
- Steffen, Will; et al. (9 August 2018). "Trajectories of the Earth System in the Anthropocene". PNAS. 115 (33): 8252–8259. Bibcode:2018PNAS..115.8252S. doi:10.1073/pnas.1810141115. hdl:2078.1/204292. PMC 6099852. PMID 30082409.
- Thomas, Julia Adeney, Jan Zalasiewicz, "Strata and Three Stories." RCC Perspectives: Transformations in Environment and Society 2020, no. 3. doi.org/10.5282/rcc/9205.
- Trischler, Helmuth, ed. "Anthropocene: Exploring the Future of the Age of Humans," RCC Perspectives 2013, no 3. doi.org/10.5282/rcc/5603.
- Visconti, Guido (2014). "Anthropocene: another academic invention?" (PDF). Rend. Fis. Acc. Lincei. 25 (3): 381–392. doi:10.1007/s12210-014-0317-x. S2CID 128678966.
- "Human-Driven Planet: Time to Make It Official?". Science Now. January 2008.
- Klinkenborg, Verlyn (December 2016). What’s Happening to the Bees and Butterflies? New York Review of Books
- Vanishing: The Sixth Mass Extinction, and How to stop the sixth mass extinction (December 2016), CNN.
- Williams, Mark; Zalasiewicz, Jan; Haff, P. K.; Schwägerl, Christian; Barnosky, Anthony D.; Ellis, Erle C. (2015). "The Anthropocene Biosphere". The Anthropocene Review. 2 (3): 196–219. doi:10.1177/2053019615591020. S2CID 7771527.
- 'Ozymandias in the Anthropocene: the city as an emerging landform', Dixon S., et al. (2017) AREA, Royal Geographical Society ISSN 1475-4762
External links[edit]
![]() | Wikiquote has quotations related to: Anthropocene |
![]() | Look up Anthropocene in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
![]() | Wikimedia Commons has media related to Anthropocene. |
- "Have humans created a new geological age?", New Scientist, 24 January 2008
- Videos of a Radcliffe conference on Biodiversity in the Anthropocene, 10 March 2006
- "Debate over the Early Anthropogenic Hypothesis", RealClimate, December 2005
- "Earth Is Us", Dot Earth blog, New York Times, 28 January 2008
- Recent work on the Early Anthropocene Hypothesis presented at AGU, December 2008
- (in French) Thierry Picquet, "New era in the evolution of the world", Planétarisation
- Humanity Blamed for 9,000 Years of Global Warming
- Nothing new under the sun: Anthropogenic global warming started when people began farming, The Economist review; includes nice graphic showing the rise in methane (a greenhouse gas), from agricultural slash-and-burn started 8,000 years ago.
- How Did Humans First Alter Global Climate?, Scientific American, 2005
- Methane: A Scientific Journey from Obscurity to Climate Super-Stardom NASA
- Anthropocene: Have humans created a new geological age? BBC News, 11 May 2011
- Vince, G. (2011). "An Epoch Debate". Science. 334 (6052): 32–37. Bibcode:2011Sci...334...32V. doi:10.1126/science.334.6052.32. PMID 21980090.
- Steffen, W; Crutzen, PJ; McNeill, JR (2007). "The Anthropocene: are humans now overwhelming the great forces of Nature?" (PDF). AMBIO. 36 (8): 614–621. doi:10.1579/0044-7447(2007)36[614:taahno]2.0.co;2. hdl:1885/29029. PMID 18240674.
- The Anthropocene epoch: have we entered a new phase of planetary history?, The Guardian, 2019
- Tooze, Adam, "Whose century?", London Review of Books, vol. 42, no. 15 (30 July 2020), pp. 9–13. Tooze closes (p. 13): "Can [the US] fashion a domestic political bargain to enable the US to become what it currently is not: a competent and co-operative partner in the management of the collective risks of the Anthropocene. This is what the Green New Deal promised. After the shock of COVID-19 it is more urgent than ever."
- The forgotten environmental crisis: how 20th century settler writers foreshadowed the Anthropocene. The Conversation. 3 December 2020.
- Drawing A Line In The Mud: Scientists Debate When 'Age Of Humans' Began. NPR. 17 March 2021.