On the Importance of a Date, or, Decolonizing the Anthropocene
The Virocene Epoch: the vulnerability nexus of viruses, capitalism and racism
International Relations in the Anthropocene
A User's Guide to the Crisis of Civilization
Our Future in the Anthropocene Biosphere: Global sustainability and resilient societies
State of the Global Climate 2021 (WMO-No. 1290) | E-Library
<aside> 💡 I would like to draw attention to current definitions of the Anthropocene and explore how global South philosophies could redefine the Anthropocene and postcolonial theories.
Current discussions of the proposed Anthropocene are largely through a Western world-view of universalism in definition, history and constructs of time. The etymology of Anthropocene includes anthropo- from the Ancient Greek meaning 'human'. Colonialism was marked by terraforming and violent displacement in order to force a replication of Western Europe and build a world-system centered on Western powers. When discussing epochs on Earth, it is based on the Western concept that time is linear and irreversible with clearly defined start and end dates and an “impending global catastrophe” that “’erase’ the experiences of indigenous peoples around the world who have inhabited post-apocalyptic worlds for centuries,” writes Selcer in “Encyclopedia of the History of Science”.
In the words of Davis and Todd from ‘On the Importance of a Date, or Decolonizing the Anthropocene’, universality “does little to register the very real differences between peoples, governments, and geographies in their complicity,” with the contemporary climate crisis.
As McEwan notes in ‘Decolonizing the Anthropocene’, African, Asian, Latin American and other developing countries are advancing economically and politically while Europe and America are provincializing themselves. This raises some questions. If the global South were the new world power, how would African/Asian/Indigenous/Latin American communities redefine the Anthropocene in both etymology and history? How would the global South redefine other epochs based on their own histories? How would concepts of time differ from the Western concept? How would a different economic system other than capitalism maintain or dismantle globalization? If the global South could enact worldwide climate crisis policies, what would they be and what African/Asian/Indigenous/Latin American philosophies would they draw upon?
</aside>