The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet

“The Anthropocene is a proposed term for the current geologic age, in which humans have profoundly reshaped the planet and its biodiversity. Nothing is more human than aggrandizing humans, but we are a hugely powerful force on Earth in the twenty-first century.”

Humanity has grown—in both size and power—to the point that it alters the landscape, changes the weather, and decides the fate of species. Green’s purpose is to examine the ironies of life with a loving eye, but some human traits simply alarm him. It troubles him that people can so neglect and mistreat this world in all its wondrous beauty.

“To fall in love with the world isn’t to ignore or overlook suffering, both human and otherwise. For me anyway, to fall in love with the world is to look up at the night sky and feel your mind swim before the beauty and the distance of the stars. It is to hold your children while they cry, to watch as the sycamore trees leaf out in June.”

The world is awe-inspiring, and the people in it, for all their flaws, are a source of amazement. Sometimes our loved ones suffer or die, and if we turn away from that pain, we miss the love. Meanwhile, in our rush to achieve, we don’t notice the world around us or our damaging effects on it. Opening oneself to hurt as well as awe is better because doing so keeps the heart compassionate and makes the mind wise.

“Humans are already an ecological catastrophe. In just 250,000 years, our behavior has led to the extinction of many species, and driven many more into steep decline. This is lamentable, and it is also increasingly needless. We probably didn’t know what we were doing thousands of years ago as we hunted some large mammals to extinction. But we know what we’re doing now. We know how to tread more lightly upon the earth. We could choose to use less energy, eat less meat, clear fewer forests. And we choose not to. As a result, for many forms of life, humanity is the apocalypse.”

Humans often fear that the world might end. Ironically, people already have caused the end of many life forms on Earth. An even darker irony is that humans might cause their own end through the neglect of those life forms. This truth confronts us all, yet we turn away just when we need to respond to it.