This episode we start a new series: Anthropocene 101. In it, we'll talk about the history of the human-made planet, from the Columbian Exchange to the supermarket. The podcast roughly follows the class I'm teaching this semester--and, frankly, is my way of working on just what on earth I want to say when I talk to my students each week.
This introductory episode details just what the Anthropocene is and why we should care about it. When does it start? Does it really matter?
I'm still finding my feet with this one: I worry I rambled a bit, that my theoretical meanderings were too flabby, and that there was far too little detail. Hopefully next week I'll make it a bit tighter.
Oh, and episodes will come out weekly until December!
Reading List:
- Lewis, Simon L., and Mark A. Maslin. 2015. “Defining the Anthropocene.” Nature 519 (March): 171.
- Steffen, Will, Jacques Grinevald, Paul Crutzen, and John McNeill. 2011. “The Anthropocene: Conceptual and Historical Perspectives.” Philosophical Transactions: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences 369 (1938): 842–67.
- Steffen, Will, Åsa Persson, Lisa Deutsch, Jan Zalasiewicz, Mark Williams, Katherine Richardson, Carole Crumley, et al. 2011. “The Anthropocene: From Global Change to Planetary Stewardship.” Ambio 40 (7): 739–61.
Extra Readings
- Stephen Gardiner, A Perfect Moral Storm
- El Kef GSSP Definition