The dawning realization that the planet may have entered a new geological epoch called the Anthropocene could prove transformative. However, over the course of its brief history, the Anthropocene concept has often been framed in ways that reinforce, rather than challenge, the conventional modernist belief in a clear dividing line between human culture and a largely passive natural world, sharply limiting the concept's potential utility. Reflecting the overestimation of human agency and power inevitably implied by a term that is often popularly translated as the 'Age of Humans', some have already begun to argue that powerful humans can be trusted to create a so-called 'Good Anthropocene' through massive geo-engineering projects. No deeper re-examination of the human relationship to the planet is thus necessary or desired. By contrast, this article draws on emerging neo-materialist theory to suggest a radically different approach that emphasizes the ways in which humans and their cultures have been created by and with a powerful material environment. The technologies of the thermo-industrial revolution are framed not so much as evidence of human power, but as evidence that the material world has a much greater power to shape human minds, cultures, and technologies than has heretofore been recognized by most scholars. From a neo-materialist perspective, the new geological epoch might be better termed the Carbocene: an age of powerful carbon-based fuels that have helped to create ways of thinking and acting that humans now find exceedingly difficult to escape. Might a more humble and cautious view of a creative and potentially dangerous planet offer a more effective
The dawning realization that the planet may have entered a new
geological epoch called the Anthropocene could prove transformative.
However, over the course of its brief history, the Anthropocene concept has
often been framed in ways that reinforce, rather than challenge, the
conventional modernist belief in a clear dividing line between human culture
and a largely passive natural world, sharply limiting the concept’s
potential utility. Reflecting the overestimation of human agency and power
inevitably implied by a term that is often popularly translated as the ‘Age
of Humans’, some have already begun to argue that powerful humans can be
trusted to create a so-called ‘Good Anthropocene’ through massive
geo-engineering projects. No deeper re-examination of the human relationship
to the planet is thus necessary or desired. By contrast, this article draws
on emerging neo-materialist theory to suggest a radically different approach
that emphasizes the ways in which humans and their cultures have been
created by and with a powerful material environment. The technologies of the
thermo-industrial revolution are framed not so much as evidence of human
power, but as evidence that the material world has a much greater power to
shape human minds, cultures, and technologies than has heretofore been
recognized by most scholars. From a neo-materialist perspective, the new
geological epoch might be better termed the Carbocene: an age of powerful
carbon-based fuels that have helped to create ways of thinking and acting
that humans now find exceedingly difficult to escape. Might a more humble
and cautious view of a creative and potentially dangerous planet offer a
more effective means of spurring progress in combating global climate change
than the misleading anthropocentrism inherent in a term like the
Anthropocene?
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