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Living in the Anthropocene: Earth in the Age of Humans
Explores the causes and implications of the Anthropocene, or Age of Humans, from multiple points of view including anthropological, scientific, social, artistic, and economic.
Although we arrived only recently in Earth's timeline, humans are driving major changes to the planet's ecosystems. Even now, the basic requirements for human life--air, water, shelter, food, nature, and culture--are rapidly transforming the planet as billions of people compete for resources. These changes have become so noticeable on a global scale that scientists believe we are living in a new chapter in Earth's story: the Anthropocene, or Age of Humans. Living in the Anthropocene: Earth in the Age of Humans is a vital look at this era. The book contextualizes the Anthropocene by presenting paleontological, historical, and contemporary views of various human effects on Earth. It discusses environmental and biological systems that have been changed and affected; the causes of the Anthropocene, such as agricultural spread, pollution, and urbanization; how societies are responding and adapting to these changes; how these changes have been represented in art, film, television, and literature; and finally, offers a look toward the future of our environment and our own lives.
Although we arrived only recently in Earth's timeline, humans are driving major changes to the planet's ecosystems. Even now, the basic requirements for human life--air, water, shelter, food, nature, and culture--are rapidly transforming the planet as billions of people compete for resources. These changes have become so noticeable on a global scale that scientists believe we are living in a new chapter in Earth's story: the Anthropocene, or Age of Humans. Living in the Anthropocene: Earth in the Age of Humans is a vital look at this era. The book contextualizes the Anthropocene by presenting paleontological, historical, and contemporary views of various human effects on Earth. It discusses environmental and biological systems that have been changed and affected; the causes of the Anthropocene, such as agricultural spread, pollution, and urbanization; how societies are responding and adapting to these changes; how these changes have been represented in art, film, television, and literature; and finally, offers a look toward the future of our environment and our own lives.
208 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2017
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720 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
March 6, 2019
This is a decent collection of essays pertaining to the challenges of living through the current geologic era (the Anthropocene). Some of the essays were hits while the others were misses. As fitting the short essay format, I include below some of my favorite quotes:
"Altered climate, eroded landscape, misused water, and wasted food plainly will impact people unevenly. Injury will be unequal relative to wealth, crowding, security, and geography. A sense of injustice and resentment is inevitable...In this new era, our reactions to strife and the values awe adopt will define our humanity."
"The Anthropocene calls for radical changes in how we interact with nature, how we tackle poverty and how we define prosperity."
"...people took materials out of the deep past and projected them into what promised to be a very deep future."
"The crisis of the Anthropocene was in fact provoked by a relatively small subset of humanity, a specific and unique cultural tradition that ultimately reduced the world to a mechanism, the planet to a commodity, with nature seen as but an obstacle to overcome."
"It is not humanity that has brought on the crisis, but rather a set of beliefs and attitudes that are most assuredly not held by the vast majority of people with whom we of the mechanical realm share the planet."
"The triumph of secular materialism became the conceit of modernity. The notions that land could have anima, that the flight of a hawk might have meaning, that beliefs of the spirit could have true resonance were dismissed as ridiculous."
"From a climate science perspective, present-day climate change is a global process. Yet people commonly experience its impacts in local contexts."
"Altered climate, eroded landscape, misused water, and wasted food plainly will impact people unevenly. Injury will be unequal relative to wealth, crowding, security, and geography. A sense of injustice and resentment is inevitable...In this new era, our reactions to strife and the values awe adopt will define our humanity."
"The Anthropocene calls for radical changes in how we interact with nature, how we tackle poverty and how we define prosperity."
"...people took materials out of the deep past and projected them into what promised to be a very deep future."
"The crisis of the Anthropocene was in fact provoked by a relatively small subset of humanity, a specific and unique cultural tradition that ultimately reduced the world to a mechanism, the planet to a commodity, with nature seen as but an obstacle to overcome."
"It is not humanity that has brought on the crisis, but rather a set of beliefs and attitudes that are most assuredly not held by the vast majority of people with whom we of the mechanical realm share the planet."
"The triumph of secular materialism became the conceit of modernity. The notions that land could have anima, that the flight of a hawk might have meaning, that beliefs of the spirit could have true resonance were dismissed as ridiculous."
"From a climate science perspective, present-day climate change is a global process. Yet people commonly experience its impacts in local contexts."
April 25, 2019
An excellent review the state of knowledge from multi-disciplinary perspective addressing common issues of living in the Anthropocene. This is an initiative led by Smithsonian Institute and contributed by many of its leading scientists.
The book divided into 5 parts from i) background of climate change and Anthropocene ii) Drivers of change iii) Responding to change iv) Visual culture and v) the Way forward. Each parts provide brief and succinct account written by expert in the field about Anthropocene from different angles from biophysical to socio-economic to cultural and psychological. It attempts to cover both environmental crisis as well inequality crisis.
The writing is up to date and short, yet it has depth and broad perspective about Anthropocene and its implication. The part responding to change and the way forward contain relevant information to ongoing effort like GEF priority and approaches and ended with E.O. Wilson's Half Earth proposal.
It also helps highlight some of the brightest scientists who grapple with big challenges like Doug McCauley on ocean science.
This is a nice book to recap on multi-dimensional implications of global climate change and how best to go about it from different disciplines. Highly recommended!
The book divided into 5 parts from i) background of climate change and Anthropocene ii) Drivers of change iii) Responding to change iv) Visual culture and v) the Way forward. Each parts provide brief and succinct account written by expert in the field about Anthropocene from different angles from biophysical to socio-economic to cultural and psychological. It attempts to cover both environmental crisis as well inequality crisis.
The writing is up to date and short, yet it has depth and broad perspective about Anthropocene and its implication. The part responding to change and the way forward contain relevant information to ongoing effort like GEF priority and approaches and ended with E.O. Wilson's Half Earth proposal.
It also helps highlight some of the brightest scientists who grapple with big challenges like Doug McCauley on ocean science.
This is a nice book to recap on multi-dimensional implications of global climate change and how best to go about it from different disciplines. Highly recommended!
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June 12, 2024this was a real mixed bag of bite-sized essays about the anthropocene. unsurprisingly, there was a lot of overlapping topics, and because the essays were so short, each one could only scratch the surface of whatever topic it was discussing.
content-wise, i thought the collection was mostly very interesting, especially the section about the arts, but i found myself getting irritated by some of the more economics-minded sections. my guy Rob Nixon is apparently the only writer here with the balls to name industry and capitalism as the real enemies in this fight. thanks king.
tldr: i wanted less redundant kumbaya-ing about the Paris Climate Accords and how the United Nations is apparently going to save us all and instead i wanted more calls for industrial sabotage and eco-terrorism. wake up people!!!!
content-wise, i thought the collection was mostly very interesting, especially the section about the arts, but i found myself getting irritated by some of the more economics-minded sections. my guy Rob Nixon is apparently the only writer here with the balls to name industry and capitalism as the real enemies in this fight. thanks king.
tldr: i wanted less redundant kumbaya-ing about the Paris Climate Accords and how the United Nations is apparently going to save us all and instead i wanted more calls for industrial sabotage and eco-terrorism. wake up people!!!!
February 21, 2019
This is really not a bad introduction to the topic of the "Anthropocene." The concept is exceedingly complex and it clearly shows that we (as in humanity) may be in over our heads in what we can do(if we can even agree we have a worldwide crisis on our hands.
I did enjoy the range of topics this covered and even made me realize how many spheres the Anthropocene covers. I only wish this book was longer and the essays went into more depth since such treating these issues in such a topical way only serves as a "tease" rather than truly informing the reader.
All things considered, the Anthropocene is a fascinating topic and one that I've thought a lot on since childhood and one that I will continue to research myself.
I did enjoy the range of topics this covered and even made me realize how many spheres the Anthropocene covers. I only wish this book was longer and the essays went into more depth since such treating these issues in such a topical way only serves as a "tease" rather than truly informing the reader.
All things considered, the Anthropocene is a fascinating topic and one that I've thought a lot on since childhood and one that I will continue to research myself.
September 30, 2024
This is a wonderful collection of short essays around issues with humans living in the anthropocene. The main parts of the book show the broad breath of topics presented:
I. A Changing Planet
II. Drivers of Change
III. Responding to Change
IV. Visual Culture
V. The Way Forward
The essays are from experts in the various fields. Each is thoughtful and concise, the information presented to inform and enlighten. Taken as a whole, this collection of essays is a rich source of perspectives and insights that enhance understanding and inspire more questions.
I. A Changing Planet
II. Drivers of Change
III. Responding to Change
IV. Visual Culture
V. The Way Forward
The essays are from experts in the various fields. Each is thoughtful and concise, the information presented to inform and enlighten. Taken as a whole, this collection of essays is a rich source of perspectives and insights that enhance understanding and inspire more questions.
April 6, 2019
This is a good survey of the field with a lot of important voices. It covers a lot of territory and should be required reading for any students dealing with the topic, although I would have appreciated a bit more from perspectives based in indigenous/decolonizing theory, as well as artists, but one can't ask for everything all at once. A nice combo of scientific and cultural insight overall. For me, the best entry was the afterward by E.O. Wilson.
August 11, 2019
A collection of essays is inevitably a mixed bag. There is quite a lot of repetition of terms and themes but overall this is an interesting and thought provoking read. Unfortunately it was written at the dawn of the age of Trump, Bolsonaro etc and so is already overtaken by even more horrific scenarios.
September 22, 2019
Great read
A fascinating faintly terrifying yet ultimately hopeful read about the environmental challenges that humans, animals and plants face in future decades on a rapidly warming planet.
A fascinating faintly terrifying yet ultimately hopeful read about the environmental challenges that humans, animals and plants face in future decades on a rapidly warming planet.
January 22, 2018
I admit that I was disappointed in this book. It contains a series of essays by a wide variety of scientists, urban planners, health experts, artists and more on what the Anthropocene is and how we might cope with the world to come. It is divided into five sections: A Changing Planet, Drivers of Change, Responding to Change, Visual Culture, and The Way Forward.
The first two sections are repetitious for anyone who has kept up with the topic of Climate Change; I nearly abandoned the book because of this. But each section usually had one essay worth reading and thinking about so I kept on. The essay on “Human Health in the Anthropocene” was one of the strongest ones in the book. Two others, “The Unequal Anthropocene” and “The Global Commons” were also strong contributions. The inclusion of a section on how to communicate the impact of the Anthropocene to others via visual media ...documentary films, painting, graphs ... was interesting and an unusual inclusion in a volume of this type.
The weaknesses of this book are that the essays are far too short (no more than 2-3 pages), too often go over well-traveled territory, and include topics that seem to be force-fit into the book.
If you know little about the topic, you might enjoy this series of essays. If you are familiar with the topic, you could readily skip it or pick it up and skim it. I had a library copy. I would not purchase this. I read it on the strength of a couple of authors I knew who were included but their works were a minor contribution, leaving me disinterested in much of the rest.
The first two sections are repetitious for anyone who has kept up with the topic of Climate Change; I nearly abandoned the book because of this. But each section usually had one essay worth reading and thinking about so I kept on. The essay on “Human Health in the Anthropocene” was one of the strongest ones in the book. Two others, “The Unequal Anthropocene” and “The Global Commons” were also strong contributions. The inclusion of a section on how to communicate the impact of the Anthropocene to others via visual media ...documentary films, painting, graphs ... was interesting and an unusual inclusion in a volume of this type.
The weaknesses of this book are that the essays are far too short (no more than 2-3 pages), too often go over well-traveled territory, and include topics that seem to be force-fit into the book.
If you know little about the topic, you might enjoy this series of essays. If you are familiar with the topic, you could readily skip it or pick it up and skim it. I had a library copy. I would not purchase this. I read it on the strength of a couple of authors I knew who were included but their works were a minor contribution, leaving me disinterested in much of the rest.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews