From the Anthropocene to the Anthropo-Scene

Abstract

In the year 2000 the Nobel prize-winning atmospheric chemist Paul Crutzen and his colleague Eugene Stoermer, a lake ecologist, published a paper in an obscure geological newsletter introducing the term ‘Anthropocene’ (Stoermer had coined this term some years previously). In 2002 Crutzen published a one page submission in the Concepts section of Nature (probably the most influential general science journal in the world). This was entitled ‘Geology of Mankind’, and a prominent box under the title was labelled ‘The Anthropocene’. The piece concluded: ‘Unless there is a global catastrophe — a meteorite impact, a world war or a pandemic — mankind will remain a major environmental force for many millennia. A daunting task lies ahead for scientists and engineers to guide society towards environmentally sustainable management during the era of the Anthropocene. This will require appropriate human behaviour at all scales, and may well involve internationally accepted, large-scale geo-engineering projects, for instance to ‘optimize’ climate. At this stage, however, we are still largely treading on terra incognita.’ Since then the idea has been carried from its birthplace in the Earth sciences into the social sciences, the humanities, and the creative arts, a process labelled the ‘Anthropo-scene’. The two books under review provide a good starting point for understanding how this unusually fertile coming together of what C.P. Snow dubbed the ‘two cultures’ in 1959 has come about.