What Does it Mean to Live in the Age of the Anthropocene?

By Mahnoor Khan

The unchecked human plunder of the earth has launched us into a terrifying new geological epoch.

No matter where you live, it’s hard to deny that signs of climate breakdown are all around us. In 2022, catastrophic floods in Pakistan caused the death and displacement of millions of people while inundating a third of the country, an area roughly equal to the size of the entire United Kingdom. Wildfires ravaged millions of acres of land in Australia in 2019-2020, killing or displacing 3 billion of the continent’s native species. Similar devastation occurred in Brazil during the Amazon fires in 2019 (which then President Jair Bolsanaro blamed on environmental NGOs out to embarrass his government). Recently, we learned that the mass death of thousands of baby emperor penguins was caused in late 2022 when the Antarctic ice sheet melted prematurely before the chicks could develop waterproof feathers. Finally, Europe experienced its hottest summers ever in 2022 and 2023, and 23 climate disasters in the US have taken place in the first eight months of 2023 alone, causing over $1 billion of damage. These are just a handful of examples, as citing every extreme climate event that has occurred in recent years is beyond the scope of this article. Some people – a group that includes climate activists and social scientists – have a special name for the strange and terrifying times we live in: they call our current era the Anthropocene.

The term, which was originally coined by biologist Eugene Stormer and chemist Paul Crutzen in the year 2000, is made up of two Greek words: ‘anthropo’ (meaning ‘man’) and ‘cene’ (meaning ‘new’). Therefore, the word posits that human activity post-industrialization has had such an extraordinary impact on our world that it has launched us into a new geological epoch altogether.

Although the official name for the current geological epoch is the Holocene, which began 11,700 years ago after the end of the last Ice Age, many social scientists and environmental activists prefer the term Anthropocene. Some go a step further still and argue that our current geological epoch should actually be called the Capitalocene. For them, the term ‘Anthropocene’ obscures the real cause of global warming as it holds humanity as a monolith responsible for the current climate crisis. This perspective ignores the differences between the economies, lifestyles, and consumption patterns in wealthy, industrialized nations compared to those of the Global South. On the other hand, the term ‘Capitalocene’ singles out wealthy capitalist economies that rely on large-scale, polluting industries to drive endless growth as the real culprits behind the climate crisis. While neither term has been formally adopted by the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS), the international organization that names and defines epochs, both terms are currently part of the vocabulary of the social sciences and environmental activism.

On social media, it is common to see satirical works that highlight the tragedy of climate disasters taking place without any meaningful action from world governments. For instance, TikToks capture the frustration of Gen-Zers who have to watch their paper straws dissolve in their lattes while the rich and famous commute via private jets that pump tonnes of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

Yet somehow, the idea that human activity is responsible for climate change is still controversial in many circles, particularly amongst those who represent the interests of fossil fuel companies. Former U.S. President Trump, for example, throughout his time as POTUS and leader of the free world peddled dangerous climate misinformation, repeatedly pointing to cold weather spells to deny global warming, calling climate change a ‘hoax’ invented by China, and tweeting climate change skepticism hundreds of times.

It’s not just politicians and fossil fuel executives who continue to ignore the warning signs of impending climate disaster. In a Good Morning Britain interview that was starkly reminiscent of a scene from the 2021 film Don’t Look Up, host Richard Madeley chose to counter Just Stop Oil activist Miranda Whelehan with relentless questioning over how protests led by the group inconvenience ordinary people rather than focus on why demonstrations against fossil fuels are the need of the hour. During the interview, the hosts and the other guest on the panel spoke to Whelehan as though they were adults counselling an imprudent and petulant child, condescendingly telling her that a better course of action would be to reach out to one’s local MP instead of crowding the streets and making life difficult for people who need to get to work on time. The interview offers a glimpse into the blasé way that the mainstream media covers the climate crisis. And Just Stop Oil aren’t the only ones facing backlash for calling attention to the climate crisis either; others, like Greta Thunberg and Greenpeace, are also harassed, belittled, and mocked by right wing politicians and tabloids who portray them as entitled middle-class brats who have nothing better to do than make mischief in the name of a non-issue.

The climate emergency has already begun to change the map of the world. The island country of Tuvalu in the Pacific, which is projected to be completely submerged by the year 2100, is replicating itself in the metaverse as the world’s first digital nation in a bid to preserve its historical and cultural heritage. Rising sea levels are also threatening the survival of numerous other low-lying countries and Small Island Developing States (SIDS) around the world, such as Bangladesh and the Maldives. This is a dire phenomenon that could lead to the creation of millions of climate refugees. Therefore, the climate crisis also has serious implications for global politics, security, and society.

Many fear that we are already past the tipping point of global warming. Barren coral reefs, shrinking ice sheets, disappearing forests, and vanishing species forecast a grim future for the planet that we are going to leave behind for future generations. Multiple industries continue to pollute the planet with abandon: the oil and gas industry, livestock farming which contributes to about 14.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions, and the fast fashion industry which mass-produces cheap, low-quality clothing – the bulk of which ends up in landfills that are so big they can be seen from space.

There is limited time to act before the actions of fossil fuel companies and wealthy corporations cause irreversible damage to our world. Avoiding the impending climate catastrophe would require the capitalist economies of the world to shift away from using GDP as the primary indicator of economic progress. Governments must also stop giving fossil fuel companies new oil and gas drilling licenses and invest in clean, sustainable, and renewable energy sources.

Most importantly, while we can all help by striving to reduce our own carbon footprint as conscientious consumers and citizens, no amount of composting, using public transport, buying fewer clothes, and cutting out single-use plastic will ever be enough to avert ecological breakdown as long as fossil fuel companies continue to plunder the earth for short-term profits and the wealthy continue to live lifestyles that pump vast amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. We are not all equally culpable for the slow death of our planet and for climate policy to be effective, it needs to focus on regulating the actions of the people at the top who are as nonchalant as ever in laying waste to the only habitable planet in the universe.