The ABCs of Modernity podcast is back with the second volume of the Modernity Dictionary, with which we make sense of this confusing time. In the first issue, we discuss the concept of the Anthropocene
.
To keep up with the times and not miss new words, subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Yandex.Music and Castbox. Rate and share in the comments the words without which, in your opinion, it is impossible to imagine communication in the XNUMXst century.
Curators, philosophers and sociologists write about the Anthropocene, a menacing era of peak human activity characterized by insane production rates, overpopulation of the Earth and environmental problems. We understand what threatens and how the problem of our kind is resolved.
What is the Anthropocene?
By the end of the 6th century, the world’s population exceeded 50 billion people – five times more than a hundred years earlier. Everyone needs to live somewhere, eat something, work with someone, travel around cities and towns, travel. Ensuring the life processes of so many people has affected the production areas: almost all the resources of the Earth are now subordinated to man. This is what characterizes the era, which is denoted by the word Anthropocene (from the other Greek “anthropos” – a person, and “cene” – new, recent) – there are no places and things left on the planet that the human hand has not touched. Human habitats are no longer just patches of land, and even the boundless and terrifying space in XNUMX years can be booked for a small outing for the weekend.
Guilt before the planet
Speaking of the Anthropocene, we first of all remember the ecological situation: pollution of the oceans and air, deforestation, extermination and extinction of plant and animal species, and, of course, the general depletion of resources.
Humanity comes face to face with the consequences of constant production. The concept of the Anthropocene includes both our actions in the past and the desire to avoid their consequences in the future. That is why the Anthropocene is not only about guilt before the Earth, but also about an attempt to reduce human activity in order to restore the fragile connection with the planet, with which we continue to exist.
Multiple business sustainability initiatives, eco-activism and the science art scene come together to reflect on the impact of the Anthropocene, work to reduce resource use, and re-conceptualize the relationship between man and nature. For example, a British car factory has recently switched to renewable energy, and artists around the world are doing exhibitions and online projects about new communication with nature – for example, by connecting a visitor to a mushroom mycelium and allowing them to communicate through electrical impulses.
More about the Anthropocene in the Trends materials:
- Man-made era: man-made objects outweighed the biomass of the Earth
- How the relationship between man and nature is changing
- Why the view of science and business on ecology and society is so different
- In search of knowledge: how the system of environmental education is built in different countries