The Anthropocene! Beyond the Natural?

Flyer from Presentation

            On April 25, 2017, I attended a lecture given by Holmes Rolston, which was located in the DUC theater. He spoke on the Anthropocene and his own ideas about it. Holmes Rolston seemed very knowledgeable about the Anthropocene, however he was difficult to follow at times. From his presentation I gathered the following information. The Anthropocene is between geology and policy.  Philosophers refer to Anthropocene as an elevator term because it starts in geology and is eventually pulled to philosophy. Which suggests that we are entering a new era.  From a geological viewpoint it talks about the international commission of stratigraphy, saying that wild nature will never have a dominate force on landscapes.

            Second he talked about the Biosphere and techno sphere, which revolved around the fact that “nature no longer runs the earth we as humans do,” according to Mark Lyans. Essentially entering the anthropocene is like a slippery slope, however we do not need to go all the way down this slope and we can just go part way. In order for the ecosystem services to grow there will be an advancement in technology. This advancement will need to predominately focus on achieving a sustainable biosphere as its highest priority. That out of all the settled contents besides Europe, the percentage of wilderness went from 1/3 to ¼, based on George Peterson’s 8 point scale of wilderness, out of the 12 zones.

            Planetary engineering is a large scale manipulation asking two questions: one what kind of planet do we want, and two what kind of planet will we get? That ideally it would make nature more user friendly, and that the living world is essentially like a big Lego kit.  The people who ultimately suffer from geoengineering are the poor people living in Africa. Then comes Anthropocene ethics which basically states that humans need to reconsider ethical obligations and take responsibility for the ending of nature. According to economist’s humans exploit resources, or at least rational people do.  Whereas Anthro-enthusiasts take a moral high ground and take more time trying to save the elephants that are essentially in turn damaging crops that could be feeding the starving people. Ultimately the idea of living in harmony with nature is far gone.

            To end Rolston said that no matter what the earth will always come back, it might not come back the same as it was, but humans will learn to reinvent the earth. In the end we need a tapestry of cultural and natural values not trajectory, and in the end our future must be the center semi Anthropocene and kept basically natural.