The Anthropocene

Unlike other eras the anthropocene means age of man, and this means that in order to solve the problems that the Earth is currently facing the solutions will need to come solely from man. The problem with this is that most people, particularly in more well developed countries will not step up and take responsibility for their actions. For the first time scientists are considering man to be a geological force, causing more destruction and erosion than any force of nature. It means instead of thinking of humans as observers of the natural world we have to think of ourselves as fundamental pieces of it.

A fundamental question of anthropology is “what does it mean to be human?” The generally accepted definition of what it means to be human has significantly changed over the last hundred years or so and is still changing today. The old ways in which we thought about humanity was that as men we were above nature; that we could control it but were not exactly a part of it. The new idea is that we need to see ourselves as an important and fundamental part of nature that is required to keep things moving. Not only are humans part of nature, as a whole, we are also powerful forces of nature that are contributing to the constant change of the surface of the earth. The problem is that in order to make any type of effective change we must come together as a whole population and change our way of thinking, but there are always those that refuse to see the light and remain stuck in their ways.