By Pietro Li Causi (University of Siena)
The Εnd of the Anthropocene?
The term ‘Anthropocene’ was coined by Paul Crutzen, Nobel Prize laureate for his contributions to atmospheric chemistry, during an IGBP (International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme) conference in 2000. On that occasion, Crutzen surprised the attendees with a speech later published in Nature in 2002. In his thesis, he posited that the Holocene epoch had concluded and given way to a new geological era inaugurated by the advent of the Industrial Revolution. In his opinion, this new era was characterized by a significant acceleration in the Earth’s transformations, largely due to human activities after the end of the last ice age2.
Initially considered controversial, the Anthropocene hypothesis has gradually gained ground within the Earth science scholarly community, evolving into an almost universally accepted concept. It has influenced contemporary political and philosophical debates on climate change, ecological crises, the sixth mass extinction and broader environmental concerns3. The debate on the Anthropocene has also guided the contemporary imagination, fuelling catastrophic narratives and encouraging the development of a new literary and cinematic genre, known as eco-fiction. This genre depicts future scenarios of environmental damage caused by our species.
This consensus persisted for at least twenty-four years. Early in 2024, a commission of geologists decreed that there had never been an Anthropocene4.
End of the story?
In the Wake of a Fading Anthropocene
As Matteo Meschiari pointed out in a recent contribution on Doppiozero, the Anthropocene has been a product of the colonial imagination, birthed by white Western males for the use of other white Western males who had begun to mourn – rather badly,
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