The Anthropocene and historical consciousness

Abstract

"Anthropocene" has been trending in environmental circles since the onset of the new millennium. It first caught public attention when scientists used it to describe the human impact on Earth's biosphere. Soon, also a lively discussion started amongst environmentalists perturbed by the destruction of earth's biosphere, because of human induced climate change. In the field of environmental and earth sciences there followed a strong initiative for a new geological epoch called the "Anthropocene". It implied that the current scientific stratigraphic dating system of the Earth requires revision. Humankind is said to have disrupted the global support system of life on planet Earth to the extent that we are heading for an imminent disaster. Resource scarcity, environmental destruction and climate change are considered as the symptoms of these human activities. In the early phase of the emergent public discourse the pronounced human ecological footprint was said to have started with the onset of the eighteenth century's British Industrial Revolution. By the early 2000s scientists, activists and politicians warned we were heading towards an imminent crisis. The large-scale extermination of many living organisms was said to have pointed directly to human resource over-consumption. Humankind has now left a profound imprint on geological processes that previously were shaped only by nature. Geologists have not yet reached consensus on an "Anthropocene epoch". One group views climate change as a natural process. Working in strictly demarcated parameters of so-called "golden spikes" registering in sophisticated geoscientific classification hierarchies, many are critical of collaboration with non-geological scientists. They insist that traces of the "human footprint" in most parts of the planet, do qualify as indicators of a new geological epoch. Several geoscientists have come out in support of the idea of an Anthropocene epoch. An outstanding feature of their approach to geoscience has been to integrate the field into comprehensive interdisciplinary study groups focusing on the effects of human activities on earth. Geological sciences, they insist, should now focus more on the present. The focus of working on the past - primarily on Earth's history "before humankind" - should shift to the present and the imminent future. In 2018, the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) rejected a proposal for the formalisation of the Anthropocene by a specialised Anthropocene Working Group (AWG). Yet, the debate continues in the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS). It may take several years before the Anthropocene epoch is formally accepted. In the discipline of History, the discussion on the Anthropocene implies that the natural and social/human sciences should move forward towards a new historical consciousness of a distant past and explore contemporary history with a view to the future. There have been several calls for a more integrated endeavour and ethical self-consciousness for contemplating Earth's past, present and future.