In an age concerned with the future trajectory of the human-Earth system, computer modelling has come to dominate anthropocene research. Modelling has been pursued owing to the method’s capacity for synthesis, quantification, and easy integration with policy. This essay defends conventional historical methods as a means of studying the anthropocene. It argues against the growing authority of modelling by drawing on philosopher Patrick Gardiner’s The Nature of Historical Explanation (1952), which defends history against scientism while also finding affinities. Models deal in generalities and cannot grasp how events unfold in specific detail. The author does not reject modelling so much as call for analytical pluralism.
Human societies have clearly altered Earth’s land, oceans and atmosphere, and re-ordered life across the planet, marking a new interval in Earth’s dynamic history referred to as the Anthropocene. To understand the fundamental causes of the Anthropocene we need to understand how humans have evolved biologically, socially, culturally, and technologically. The structure for this framing is the conceptual framework that divides human history into five main societies: Hunter-gathering Agriculturalism, Mercantile Capitalism, Industrial Capitalism, and Consumer Capitalism. Within this framework major changes over the last 2 million years in biological evolution, energy production and technology are mapped out and discussed. It is also essential that the study of human evolution should be incorporated within the new conceptual framework of the Anthropocene. We suggest that today nothing in the science of human evolution makes sense except in the light of the Anthropocene. Incorporating human evolution within the Anthropocene provides a deeper understanding of how an African hominin with no natural weapons or defences came to transform an entire planet. It also provides a framework to examine potential impact of new technology in genetics, health and AI on the future evolution of human biology, cognition, and social structures.
There is increasing scientific evidence of the link between the changes resulting from human activities on the planet and the increase in the frequency and severity of disasters. In the face of this change, geologists warn that the stable conditions of the Holocene are behind us and that humanity is entering a new geological epoch—the Anthropocene—whose parameters are uncertain and unpredictable. The Anthropocene changes the context in which disasters occur and operate. This has important implications for disaster studies. First of all, disasters need to be reinterpreted within the changing and unpredictable conditions of the Anthropocene. This study aims to reinterpret disasters from the perspective of Anthropocene and discuss its implications for disaster policies. The Anthropocene brings many aspects such as the expansion of time and space horizons, uncertainty in cause-effect relationships, cascading effects, and unpredictable acceleration to the agenda in reinterpreting disasters. These new features of disasters render disaster management a contentious claim. It doesn’t seem possible to manage, control or prepare for disasters under the conditions imposed by the Anthropocene. Instead, it seems a more reasonable option to focus on policies that will increase the resilience of societies by transforming socio-ecological systems by utilizing the potential of disasters to trigger new beginnings.
Natural sounds play vital recreational and ecological roles across small aquatic ecosystems. Given the density and diversity of species reliant on these auditory environments, protecting natural soundscapes from growing forms of unsustainable human-use is important. Changing soundscape qualities with growing unnatural sources can herald species, habitat, or small ecosystem changes. In the case of small aquatic natural areas (SANAs), which face disturbances like unsustainable nature-based outdoor recreation with understudied ecological fates, some of these changes forecast unfavorable outcomes. Outdoor recreation induces direct (i.e., consumptive) ecological changes through fishing, hunting, or vegetation trampling/extraction. Conversely, boating, swimming, hiking, and natural feature viewing spark indirect (i.e., non-consumptive) ecological changes by altering wildlife behavior, re-organizing feeding relationships, or decreasing soundscape quality. In this work, we illuminate the current state of knowledge about outdoor recreational effects and soundscapes common within the Anthropocene. This work builds an understanding of recophony, or the suite of sounds from various nature-based recreational activities. Our system coverage includes small aquatic ecosystems like ponds, marshes, swamps, streams, and waterfalls. Through literature reviews and limited system-specific evaluations, we forge management questions for each small ecosystem and describe applied research paths. Our findings indicate that consistent recreational noise contributes to abnormal species communication patterns, altered species interactions, and conflicts among various user groups resulting from noise pollution. We encourage SANA managers and scholars to observe how specific species, habitats, and small freshwater ecosystems respond to diverse recreational uses. Finally, we challenge the aquatic-based outdoor recreation communities to consider both how recophony shapes user experiences but also affects the integrity of the natural soundscape during and after activity engagement.
Earth System science (ESS) develops computer models of planetary dynamics using sets of partial differential equations. As humans have become recognised as a major determinant of Earth system change, the integration of lines of code that represent human history has become necessary. However, as yet, these representations have proven somewhat rudimentary and run into perennial concerns inherent to the human sciences. The introduction to this special issue addresses the recent history of integrating history and ESS and outlines a proposed counter-move: the historicization of Earth system modelling. Outcomes of this work are presented here. Moreover, in outlining past attempts at integrating history and ESS, we note some fundamental differences between these disciplines. Rather than disavowing integration, however, we call for ongoing and mutually respectful experimentation.
Despite the promotion of mega-events, such as World Expositions, as platforms for sustainability, innovation, and intercultural dialog, the material, environmental, and symbolic impacts of such events remain contested. The paper conceptualizes sustainability as coherence across three dimensions: material and environmental performance, including emissions, contamination risks, biodiversity loss, and material life cycles; governance and accountability, including public data, long-term monitoring, and post-event responsibility; and distributional equity, addressing who bears environmental costs and who captures benefits. This opinion paper examines Expo 2025 Osaka (Expo 2025) through the lenses of engineering, ecology, architecture, finance, and sociocultural analysis. The reclaimed, waste-derived site has been linked to methane emissions, subsidence, and contamination hazards. Notwithstanding the pervasiveness of sustainability narratives, numerous pavilions are designed for brief lifespans and constrained reuse pathways. Nevertheless, initiatives such as the Women’s pavilion have been documented as exemplifying the viability of circular design. The conversion of a coastal wetland has given rise to concerns regarding biodiversity loss and cultural values. More broadly, Expo 2025 is indicative of the financialization of innovation and geopolitical spectacle, a phenomenon that often prioritizes visibility and investment over systemic change. The argument is made that measurable transformation beyond the event horizon requires transparent data regimes, long-term environmental monitoring, and inclusive planning. The absence of these elements could result in the reproduction of extractive paradigms through green narratives.
This is a statistical analysis of several time series to find the best evidence to determine when the Holocene ended. We utilize nonparametric statistical methods (which are model free) to determine structural breaks on whether the cumulative human impacts on land, air and oceans are indicative of the end of the Holocene Epoch. It is shown that the use of fossil fuels was the dominant factor in achieving high standards of living, and increased life expectancy in some regions of the globe. However, human prosperity also entailed destructive impacts on the Earth System, which led Paul Crutzen to suggest that a new epoch, the Anthropocene, had begun. But there were several possible dates for the beginning of the epoch. The statistical techniques used here support 1952 as the start of the epoch, which agrees with the conclusions of the Anthropocene Working Group.
This paper identifies a significant shift in the current dynamics of the Anthropocene driven by transhumanism. While the Anthropocene has traditionally emphasized humanity’s impact on Earth’s systems, transhumanist visions now direct this transformative force toward the biological and cognitive constitution of the human. This has two main implications for the Anthropocene dynamics: first, it marks an expansion of human action toward the technical control of human biological and cognitive capacities; second, it generates unprecedented living conditions that redefine what it means to be human. To capture this development, we introduce the notion of the “Transhumanist Anthropocene.” With it, we point to a novel trajectory within the overall Anthropocene dynamics . This is characterized by a reinforced anthropocentrism, the rise of a techno-religion shaped by transhumanist thought, a reduction of the perceived urgency of the climate crisis, and an increasing reliance on techno-solutionist models of environmental governance. We argue that this significantly complicates efforts toward a sustainable future in the face of the climate crisis.
In a world where facts are contested, the conceptual tool of the Anthropocene epoch - that is, the dramatic and clearly demonstrable ways humans have changed the Earth system trajectory since the mid-20th century - provides real value for society in general and for education in particular. As a unifying concept, it helps us (a) understand the transformed bioclimatic conditions in which we live, (b) appreciate how fragile they are, how rapidly they are shifting, and their implications for humanity, and (c) explain the importance of containing climatic, biological, and attendant societal runaway effects, through deeper understanding of the Earth system. The Anthropocene as an educational tool can illuminate the web of connections between these themes, but should remain at arm's length from calls to action.
This study aims to clarify the existing complexity by exploring the conceptual and theoretical foundations of climate-related displacement and mobility; and by deriving a perspective on climatic displacement and mobility from empirical findings in the literature and data from global institutions that collect climate-related migration data. Climate-related human mobility is increasingly recognized as a significant and pressing global concern. Academic interest in this topic, while emerging after the 2000s, has led to a relatively complex and somewhat fragmented body of literature, reflecting its contemporary and interdisciplinary relevance. Studies related to the topic have been thoroughly reviewed, and a systematic and comprehensive evaluation has been made through critical literature analysis. According to this, climate-induced migration is on the rise in many parts of the world, especially in Southeast Asia, Central Africa, and the Americas. As climate change intensifies, its existing areas of impact continue to expand, and this further complicates mobility dynamics, particularly by acting as a compounding factor that exacerbates socioeconomic vulnerabilities and structural inequalities. Research findings and literature suggest that climate change-induced migration may become more pronounced in the future and emerge as an important item on the global agenda. While analyzing the broader phenomenon of climate-induced migration, the study focuses primarily on disaster-driven internal displacement due to data limitations from global institutions like the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center (IDMC).
The present era marked a shift in the balance between Earth and its inhabitants due to anthropogenic activities. Indigenous peoples, such as "Khasis and Oraons" in India, have traditionally lived closer and more harmoniously with nature. Their cultural practices, festivals, rituals, taboos, and customs help regulate behaviors that affect the environment. These two North Indian tribes' religions view nature as a deity, protector, or host, with ancestral spirits residing within it. These beliefs reflect the deep ethical considerations of tribal communities regarding their interaction with the environment. The tribal practices prevalent here are conservationist in nature and are not grounded in science but in the moral philosophy, of interdependence and tolerance. We argue here, with the help of textual shreds of evidence and primary data collections that these Adivasis do not take land as a commodity but as a "community." For them, the land is "Ethic" and nature is "Religion." The majority of tribal communities in India adore the natural world. They revere forests, rocks, rivers, and mountains. They hold that spirits exist in the natural world and its environs and can either be good or bad for their way of life. Since they worship nature, they have elevated the environment to the position of god, demonstrating the unbounded value they place on it. The study will focus on their traditional ecological knowledge (TEK), conservation practices, and sustainable resource management.
The migration from rural areas to cities, and the thereby increased growth in urban population, leads to the emergence of various anthropogenic issues in today's world. The aim of this study is to showcase the anthropogenic density of deformation and fragmentation in the urban settlement area of Ankara, the capital city of Turkiye, by modelling according to a variety of criteria. This research model uses the correlation of inclination and its length, relative relief, NDVI, anthropogenic stress intensity, distribution of buildings, road network, urban pressure intensity, and urban development data to determine the deformation and fragmentation density separately. Subsequently, both results are analysed through over-analyse within the scope of the joint effect. The achieved results show that the density of deformation and fragmentation in the initial settlement centre of Ankara is high, while areas with high road network density and planned communities are found in the outer ring of those areas. The incurred deformation and fragmentation processes lead to the artificial erosion of the topography, deposition zones, disintegration of living spaces, and pattern changes, which results in ecological alterations in the city of Ankara.
This article takes the Plantationocene concept as a departure point to question Earth System Models (ESMs). The term emphasises the formative role of plantation ecologies and colonialism as drivers of planetary change. Taking the tension between the need to document the Plantationocene's planetary impact and the inability of models to fully grasp and articulate its violent ramifications, the paper interrogates how modelling limits what stories about planetary change can be told. This includes the limited kinds of political interventions modelling enables, the colonial legacy of data collection, as well as more recent acts of data extraction and dispossession. The paper proposes that the Plantationocene can be counter-modelled in a way that integrates friction, communal counter-mapping, and climate fiction. This effort could form part of a broader reparative and radical response to the ongoing planetary catastrophe.
This paper will discuss the land struggles and reforestation projects of the Indigenous Lakl & atilde;n & otilde;-Xokleng community in Santa Catarina, southern Brazil. Drawing on short-term ethnographic fieldwork and interviews conducted in February and March 2024 - as well as a review of existing legal and academic literature - it will argue that their case is significant for understanding the links between climate justice and land claims in the Global South. The paper engages how the struggles for land and the forest involve the intertwining of territorial, juridical and spiritual idioms. Local onto-epistemologies of the forest are mobilised to heal colonial dispossessions and wounds, respond to changing climatic factors, and navigate global climate finance regimes and institutions. The paper engages and advances Fraser et al.'s conception of the "Anthropocene tropical forest" published in The Anthropocene Review. Advancing their ideas on the relational aspects of forests that subvert the nature-culture divide, I propose the concept of 'terrestrial (re)forestations'. This concept indicates the ways in which Indigenous claims to land and forests require territorial demarcations, though these are interpenetrated with evolving spiritual relations and wider historical and planetary processes.
The exponential increase in global waste production resulting from population growth, urbanization, and increased consumption has brought waste management to the forefront of global environmental challenges. This paper provides an analysis of waste management practices in two contrasting case studies. Japan a highly developed country, exemplifies a model of advanced waste management with a robust regulatory framework, extensive public engagement, and sophisticated waste sorting, recycling, and recovery infrastructure, all underpinned by "Mottainai"-a concept deeply rooted in Japanese culture that emphasizes resource conservation and waste minimization. In contrast, Poland, like many Eastern European countries, faces systemic challenges, including inadequate infrastructure, limited recycling facilities, and low public awareness. Drawing on empirical evidence and scholarly discourse, this paper highlights the critical role of societal attitudes, policy interventions, and technological advances in shaping effective waste management strategies. By elucidating the key determinants of successful waste management systems, this paper contributes insights to the global discourse on sustainable development and informs future efforts toward sustainable waste management.
Rewilding has grown into a major land-use strategy now being adopted by governments and environmental NGOs and often wealthy individuals. Increasingly it is presented as the best or only option to address major Anthropocene challenges, yet critiques of the concept and practice remain common. This review brings together political ecology, archaeology, history, art, literature and popular non-fiction illustrating how rewilding, knowingly or not, draws on different bodies of knowledge ranging from ecological science to historical literature. We focus on how the knowledge drawn from these different disciplines is utilised to justify not only specific programmes of rewilding, but also the concept more broadly. These justifications, we argue, have coalesced into what we term the "Wild Imperative." We describe some of the problems associated with the "Wild Imperative" and potential solutions to them in order to encourage both a greater diversity of perspectives and self-critical reflection for rewilding science and practice.
'Seasons of the Anthropocene' - where human activities interact with biophysical cycles to create recurrent environmental phenomena that are often hazardous - are emerging. This article offers the first problematisation of the emergence of a 'season of the Anthropocene'. We investigate the 'haze season' and its use to describe the almost annually recurrent air pollution in maritime Southeast Asia caused by peatland burning in the region. Analysing over 36,000 news articles published in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore in the last three decades, we demonstrate how 'haze season' has gained salience in public discourse, functioning as a heuristic device to structure both adaptation and mitigation behaviours. During polluted months, media coverage emphasises adaptive responses such as staying indoors and mask-wearing, while in clearer months it shifts to mitigative themes such as corporate sustainability, legislation, and diplomacy. We also uncover early signs of desensitisation, evident in satire and humour about haze recurrence, and an emerging preference for interventionist adaptive strategies, such as cloud seeding, which reinforce a crisis narrative and deflect attention from underlying causes of haze. Our findings advance understanding of the political and institutional dynamics shaping environmental 'seasonalities' as contingent socio-material assemblages of ecological degradation, fire, and pollution. By conceptualising and empirically tracing how novel seasons are constructed and mobilised in public discourse, we forge a new research agenda of studying 'seasonality' in the Anthropocene, as an important lens through which we might better understand these mutually constructive relationships within the biophysical environment.
This paper aims to explore an astrobiological genealogy of the concept of the Planetary vividly discussed in contemporary environmental humanities and social sciences, and to offer a framework for an articulation of political-economic models based on this concept. Following Bentley Allan, we propose to treat the Planetary as an example of scientific cosmology, thus emphasizing how astrobiology supports a much broader philosophical worldview that shines a new light on persistent problems related to organizing human inhabitation of the Earth. Starting with the analysis and speculative elaboration on Allan’s theory of cosmological shifts in international orders during Western modernity, we associate the Anthropocene discourse as an inaugurating moment in the consolidation of the Planetary’s scientific cosmology, grounded in the astrobiology’s metabolic perspective on complex adaptive systems. The narrative of the paper offers a genealogy of this perspective, including the most recent research about information metabolisms and biosphere-technosphere coupling in astrobiology, which paves the way for the explanation of the economy itself as a metabolic entity. After the review of adjacent philosophical positions associated with ecological economics and the theory of complex adaptive systems, the paper concludes with remarks on the Planetary as a cornerstone of an international order that yields economic imperatives governed by a generic view of the Earth as a member of a potentially large and diverse category of habitable planets.
Deliberate, large-scale interventions in the Earth's climate system, collectively known as 'geoengineering', are increasingly being proposed to counteract the worst effects of global warming. Public and scholarly controversies have ensued due to the high risks and high uncertainties that characterise these novel technologies. For all that, geoengineering is currently being evaluated at the highest levels of governance, and a full-scale review by the United Nations is ongoing. To enrich the understanding of geoengineering, the present work reviews the metaphysics behind the main arguments in favour and against geoengineering. Based on the varied conceptions of humans, nature, knowledge, and technical systems, which support their appraisals, proponents and opponents of climate engineering are grouped into four ideal-types: homo naturans, homo faber, homo sapiens, and anthropo-not-seen. In addition to the pro-against geoengineering fissure, a second one is identified: transcendental-instrumental metaphysics.
In the Anthropocene, the world’s oceans have come under unprecedented human pressure. Countries have responded to this pressure by organizing themselves internationally around the idea of sustainable ocean governance. However, the geopolitical context in which sustainable ocean governance has taken shape in recent decades has begun to shift. After two centuries marked by British and American maritime hegemony, several other states are now asserting their maritime presence, raising the question of whether an increasingly multipolar environment will bring the relatively stable international maritime order to an end. In this paper we collect, organize, and analyze evidence from academic literature that reports and investigates a shift in geopolitics at sea. Based on the results of this literature review we explore how the international maritime order is changing and discuss what this geopolitical shift means for sustainable ocean governance.
