Centre members contribute to article in the journal Nature: "The Meaning of the Anthropocene"
Members the Centre of Excellence for Anthropocene History have contributed to a newly published comment in Nature on how the idea of the Anthropocene is useful across many disciplines, expert areas and in culture & the arts.
The Comment paper (pdf 1.7 MB) , entitled “What should the Anthropocene Mean?” Briefly covers the history of the concept, its origins in the field of geology, the recently voted-down proposal to make it an official geological epoch. The authors and co-signatories argue that, with or without a formal geological definition and despite substantive critiques, the concept continues to be used and to evolve because it captures something so crucial so well. The article points out that:
"...it is the lived, experienced and observationally recorded phenomena that go beyond geology and produce the intense broader interest in the Anthropocene: a fully legitimate interest, because the original guiding concept of the Anthropocene addresses the conditions of Earth’s habitability."
While Earth System Sciences have and continues to make much use of the concept, the paper also points out the concept has spread across field of anthropology, international law, ethics and political science, among others. This is important because
“The physical sciences also rarely explore the resulting social , economic and political responses, or the values that underlie people’s desires and hopes.”
The comment also gives examples of emerging institutions that are bringing the study of the Anthropocene forward beyond Earth Systems Science, listing the Centre of Excellence for Anthropocene history at KTH, Stockholm, alongside the Centre for Anthropocene Studies at the Korea Advanced institute of Science and Technology in Daejeon, South Korea, and the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology in Jena, Germany.
Read the full comment here. (pdf 1.7 MB) with the full list of co-signing contributers.
Read also our Centre Co-Director Adam Wickberg's recent article on the future of the Anthropocene concept published in Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter (in Swedish).