The proposed geological epoch of the Anthropocene is contested within many different disciplines. Taking an interdisciplinary approach by synthesizing different perspectives, we can see a clearer picture of the relationship between humans, non-humans, and the landscape of nature can emerge. Sustainability and climate concerns are highlighted throughout all scholarly articles.
Within Domin Boyer’s Energopolitics: Wind and Power in the Anthropocene duograph report, he observed the political and ecological aspects that influenced the development of wind power in Mexico’s Isthmus of Tehuatepec. Boyer proposes this case study as an example toward alternative solutions to the issues of the Anthropocene by emphasing local models and countering the narratives of universalism. In contrast, Global Commons in the Anthropocene: World Development on a Stable and Resilient Planet (Nakicenovic, Nebojsa, et al.) stresses this anthropogenic universalism. The balancing of human development with environmental stewardship is the proposed solution. There are several contesting sides within the discourse that place responsibility on the individual, the community, or the collective.
There are other approaches to this topic such as Rebecca Evan’s “Nomenclature, Narrative, and Novum: ‘The Anthropocene’ and/as Science Fiction.” Approaching this topic through the lens of science fiction can harness the power of narratives and narrative structures to influence readers toward action as well as map possible alternatives to present problems such as climate change. Sabine Wilke follows a similar pattern of thought in “Anthropocenic Poetics: Ethics and Aesthetics in a New Geological Age.” Here, Wilke emphasizes the need for new understandings of the relationship between corporal being and landscape as a way to transform our current environment. They also bring up the need for a critical normative framework to work in conjunction with a postcolonial and environmental justice perspective. Both Evans and Wilke posit the ability for aesthetics to reveal the present relationship between humans and the environment.
In Urban Ethics in the Anthropocene, Jeffrey K. H. Chan views the Anthropocene and the role of design through a dimension of ethics. They highlight the anthropogenic impacts of urbanization and design’s role in establishing interventions. Chan discusses a combination of the ethical domain and the urban studies domain to create urban ethics as a way to talk about the anthropogenic impacts of urbanization on the urban condition. Within the RCC Perspectives journal, Jens Kersten’s article titled “The Enjoyment of Complexity: A New Political Anthropology for the Anthropocene?” also agrees that the Anthropocene as a concept is not only about the factual and the scientific but also about the ethical and the political. The Anthropocene is a concept that requires questions and solutions from the humanities and the sciences.
Due to the ever increasing interconnectivity of the globe, humans have become more aware of their impact on the landscape. Whether this impact is substantial enough to produce irreversible harm for the biosphere is still being debated within the scientific community and the political community. In order to arrive at a clearer understanding of the Anthropocene concept, it would be helpful to filter it through several frameworks to arrive at the best solutions to the multifaceted issues that this age presents us with.
Boyer, Dominic. Energopolitics : Wind and Power in the Anthropocene . Duke University Press, 2019.
Chan, Jeffrey K. H. “Urban Ethics in the Anthropocene: The Moral Dimensions of Six Emerging Conditions in Contemporary Urbanism.” Urban Ethics in the Anthropocene, Springer Singapore Pte. Limited, 2018, doi:10.1007/978-981-13-0308-1.
Kersten, Jens. “The Enjoyment of Complexity: A New Political Anthropology for the Anthropocene?” RCC Perspectives, no. 3, 2013, pp. 39–56. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/26240508. Accessed 28 Sept. 2020.
Nakicenovic, Nebojsa, et al. Global Commons in the Anthropocene: World Development on a Stable and Resilient Planet. International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), 2016, www.jstor.org/stable/resrep15811. Accessed 22 Sept. 2020.
Rebecca Evans. “Nomenclature, Narrative, and Novum: ‘The Anthropocene’ and/as Science Fiction.” Science Fiction Studies, vol. 45, no. 3, 2018, pp. 484–499. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.5621/sciefictstud.45.3.0484. Accessed 22 Sept. 2020.
Wilke, Sabine. “Anthropocenic Poetics: Ethics and Aesthetics in a New Geological Age.” RCC Perspectives, no. 3, 2013, pp. 67–74. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/26240510. Accessed 22 Sept. 2020.
