This Lecture will explore the concept of the ‘Anthropocene’ which has permeated contemporary discourse to characterize “the current epoch in which humans and our societies have become a global geophysical force.” According to Paul Crutzen
The term Anthropocene suggests that the Earth has now left its natural geological epoch, the present interglacial state called the Holocene. Human activities have become so pervasive and profound that they rival the great forces of Nature and are pushing the Earth into planetary terra incognita . The Earth is rapidly moving into a less biologically diverse, less forested, much warmer, and probably wetter and stormier state.
The primarily focus will be questioning how the "Anthropocene" has become incorporated in various discourses: Humanities, Sciencies, Arts and attempts to understand the ramifications of its adoption. Secondly, it questions how does it shift the focus to expand our scope to include non-sapien agents, forces, or actors that are profoundly affected and influenced by the Anthropos.
Finally, the emerging debate regarding the utilization of Anthropocene becomes a focal point for the International Commission on Stratigraphy and the International Union of Geological Sciences to question whether it should be incorporated and accepted as a defined geological unit within the Geological Time Scale. Coinciding with the controversey to adopt it as a term, the rise of the term "Capitalocene" has also become a term to encapsulate the complex interrelated processes of global scale economic organization with the advent of colonialism, industrialization and globalization within nature’s web of life as well as brought ecological transformation to it. Ultimately, how does the Capitalocene rejoinder towards the Anthropocene becomes ‘‘a rousal to engage with the devastating effects of Capitalism in exchange for a "Species-thinking on climate change only induces paralysis. If everyone is to blame, then no one is." Ultimately, we will analyze and draw out overlap and fundamental differences between both schools of thought.
