Anthropocene

 

Following up from the last post, the first item on the list of Human Centred Conservationist claims is:

 

1)         The Anthropocene has arrived and humans are now de facto planetary managers;

 

According to Wikipedia, “The Anthropocene is a proposed geologic chronological term for an epoch that begins when human activities have had a significant global impact on the Earth’s ecosystems…

As of April 2015, the term has not been adopted formally as part of the official nomenclature of the geological field of study.”  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropocene

 

Not only has the term not been approved as a geological epoch but no starting date has been approved.

So, firstly, the word Anthropocene has been proposed as the latest geological epoch and not as a generalised new word for the human global impact.  Secondly, any word that reflects a human dominated ecosystem should not or cannot at the same time incorporate a distinctively additional responsibility of being planetary managers.  From a planetary perspective, a large group of vandals wreaking havoc with planetary infrastructure would never be rewarded with a managerial promotion.  Granted, colonialism – came, saw, conquered and then governed.  I hope that is not what the “new Conservationists” have in mind.

 

I’ll be looking more deeply into what organisations and prominent people play a part in the new conservationist agenda.  So far, I have identified The Breakthrough Institute.

 

“Breakthrough Journal exists to modernize political thought for the 21st century. Founded shortly after the death of heterodox sociologist Daniel Bell, Breakthrough Journal embraces Bell’s view that ‘A new public philosophy will have to be created in order that something we recognize as a liberal society may survive.’

Situated at the intersection of modernization theory, pragmatism, and liberalism, Breakthrough Journal publishes long-form essays and short articles aimed at challenging conventional progressive and environmental wisdom in service of creating a relevant and powerful new politics.”  http://thebreakthrough.org/index.php/journal/about/

 

Stewart Brand is a Fellow of the Breakthrough Institute

Whole Earth Discipline: Why Dense Cities, Nuclear Power, Transgenic Crops, Restored Wildlands, and Geoengineering Are Necessary Paperback – September 28, 2010 Stewart Brand

 

THE BREAKTHROUGH INSTITUTE

436 14TH STREET, SUITE 820

OAKLAND, CA 94612 510 550 8800

INFO@THEBREAKTHROUGH.ORG

 

In the Breakthrough Journal Issue Number 2 (Winter 2012)  there can be found an article called: Conservation in the Anthropocene  Beyond Solitude and Fragility  Authors:   Robert Lalasz, Peter Kareiva, Michelle Marvier.  Lalasz and Kareiva work for the Nature Conservancy and Michelle Marvier is professor and department chair at the Department of Environmental Studies and Sciences at Santa Clara University.

A shortened selection from the article can be read from the link below.

http://thebreakthrough.org/index.php/journal/past-issues/issue-2/conservation-in-the-anthropocene

 

“The Conservancy has over one million members, and has protected more than 119 million acres of land and 5,000 miles of rivers worldwide.[citation needed] The Nature Conservancy also operates more than 100 marine conservation projects globally.[4] The organization’s assets total $6.18 billion as of 2014.”