The Beginning of the Anthropocene

This week’s topic focused on the Anthropocene and much of the readings were debating the human golden spike that determined the mark of the new era. This new era could have begun in 1610 during the movement in species and the first changes in climate or in 1964 where human environmental impacts of the grate acceleration could be traced back to. The later would imply that colonialism and global trade would be the greatest marking points. Though there was mention of the “age of mind and era of man”, and how that marked the separation of homo- sapiens from animal species (LEWIS, 2015). This too me, seems like the time when the world and relationships between man and earth changes completely. During this is when humans became the center of life on earth and that dependence on land for food, shelter, and spiritual connection might have been broken. At this time, humans began exploiting the world that surrounded them and using it to their advantage for profit, gain and control and that to me, marks the era of change. Human disconnection from the earth we are born upon is a flaw that can be seen in the lack of care for the environment and the ongoing ‘debate’ of climate change. Without full universal recognition of our environment impacts and destruction of the world, we will continue down this path until it is too late. I believe the Anthropocene began when humans placed themselves higher and above ‘nature’ to the point of when expansion and power became top priority.

That can be seen in the second reading, The African Anthropocene by Gabrielle Hecht when she talks about the ‘we’ in this world and how it is mostly used to describe the western white. When we became blind to the damage that being wrecked to the body and planet, and we continued taking more than we needed, filling our bodies with toxins we created, and destroying a planet we depended on. Then the white western continued with their practices and began bringing their waste and manufacturing processes to the poor countries to avoid restriction. And there became a habit of polluting with knowledge of such, being taught another way, and disregarding they key to change that our environment but mostly we, desperately need because it’s too expensive to change. Those industries ignore it because they don’t have the money for change, they only have greed for more of what they already own, the earth doesn’t matter as long as their pockets are full. This contributes to the growing inequalities between rich and poor and the abuse of countries that lack money and are trying to stay alive in this twisted game of corruption and control.

Lewis, S.L. & Maslin, M. (2015). Defining the Anthropocene. Nature, 519, 171-180. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature14258

Hecht, G. (2018). ‘The African Anthropocene’. Retrieved from https://aeon.co/essays/if-we-talk-about-hurting-our-planet-who-exactly-is-the-we; accessed on 24^th August 2018.