Altered Earth: Getting the Anthropocene Right

Description

Altered Earth aims to get the Anthropocene right in three senses. With essays by leading scientists, it highlights the growing consensus that our planet entered a dangerous new state in the mid-twentieth century. Second, it gets the Anthropocene right in human terms, bringing together a range of leading authors to explore, in fiction and non-fiction, our deep past, global conquest, inequality, nuclear disasters, and space travel. Finally, this landmark collection presents what hope might look like in this seemingly hopeless situation, proposing new political forms and mutualistic cities. 'Right' in this book means being as accurate as possible in describing the physical phenomenon of the Anthropocene; as balanced as possible in weighing the complex human developments, some willed and some unintended, that led to this predicament; and as just as possible in envisioning potential futures. 03.0_pp_iv_iv_Copyright_page 04.0_pp_v_vi_Dedication 05.0_pp_vii_viii_Contents 06.0_pp_ix_x_Figures 07.0_pp_xi_xiv_Foreword 08.0_pp_xv_xviii_Acknowledgments 09.0_pp_1_18_Introduction_The_Growing_Anthropocene_Consensus 10.0_pp_19_80_Strata_and_Stories 10.1_pp_21_50_Science_Old_and_New_Patterns_of_the_Anthropocene 10.2_pp_51_80_Humanities_and_Social_Sciences_Human_Stories_and_the_Anthropocene_Earth_System 11.0_pp_81_220_One_Anthropocene_Many_Stories 11.1_pp_83_105_Earth_System_Science_Gravity_the_Earth_System_and_the_Anthropocene 11.2_pp_106_129_Deep_History_and_Disease_Germs_and_Humanitys_Rise_to_Planetary_Dominance 11.3_pp_130_146_Anthropology_Colonialism_Indigeneity_and_Wind_Power_in_the_Anthropocene 11.4_pp_147_159_The_Ascent_of_the_Anthropoi_A_Story 11.5_pp_160_181_Politics_in_the_Anthropocene 11.6_pp_182_195_Very_Recent_History_and_the_Nuclear_Anthropocene 11.7_pp_196_208_Stratigraphy_Finding_Global_Markers_in_a_Small_Canadian_Lake 11.8_pp_209_220_Curating_the_Anthropocene_at_Berlins_Haus_der_Kulturen_der_Welt 12.0_pp_221_262_Future_Habitations 12.1_pp_223_231_Anthropocene_Ethics_as_Seen_From_a_Mars_Mission_A_Story 12.2_pp_232_258_Mutualistic_Cities_of_the_Near_Future 12.3_pp_259_262_Afterword 13.0_pp_263_272_Biographies_of_Chapter_Contributors 14.0_pp_273_278_Index