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Anthropocene, Noel Castree

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Coined by two environmental scientists, the term "Anthropocene" is currently a buzzword in sections of the earth and environmental science community, as well as in the social sciences and humanities. It may in time assume the status of a "keyword" and become an established part of the academic lexicon. It describes human-induced changes to the earth's biophysical and chemical environment of such scope, scale, and magnitude as to mark the end of the Holocene (i.e., the roughly 11,700 years prior to the 21st century). The Anthropocene is thus an epochal term: it proposes that modern humans possess powers equivalent to …

Noel Castree (University Of Wollongong) On Christophe Bonneuil And Jean-Baptiste Fressoz's The Shock Of The Anthropocene: The Earth, History, And Us, Noel Castree

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Book review of: Christophe Bonneuil and Jean-Baptiste Fressoz, The Shock of the Anthropocene: The Earth, History, and Us (translated by David Fernbach), New York: Verso, 2016. ISBN: 9781784780791 (cloth); ISBN: 9781784780814 (ebook).

An Official Welcome To The Anthropocene Epoch - But Who Gets To Decide It's Here?, Noel Castree

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

It's literally epoch-defining news. A group of experts tasked with considering the question of whether we have officially entered the Anthropocene - the geological age characterised by humans' influence on the planet - has delivered its answer: yes.

The British-led Working Group on the Anthropocene (WGA) told a geology conference in Cape Town that, in its considered opinion, the Anthropocene epoch began in 1950 - the start of the era of nuclear bomb tests, disposable plastics and the human population boom.

The Anthropocene has fast become an academic buzzword and has achieved a degree of public visibility in recent years. …