{"id":12803,"date":"2022-08-04T07:18:18","date_gmt":"2022-08-04T12:18:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/?p=12803"},"modified":"2022-08-04T15:16:38","modified_gmt":"2022-08-04T20:16:38","slug":"after-the-anthropocene-the-deluge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2022\/08\/04\/after-the-anthropocene-the-deluge\/","title":{"rendered":"After the Anthropocene, the deluge?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On the Ecocene, the Chthulucene, <\/em>the Ecozoic,<\/em> and other Holocene successor terms<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The term “Anthropocene<\/a>” has come to be accepted among many intellectuals as the best, or perhaps least worst<\/em>, name for the geological present, when human activities have come to dominate the planet. It’s still debated among geologists, with “Holocene” or “Late Holocene<\/a>” preferred by many (and left-leaning social scientists preferring Capitalocene<\/a>, Technocene<\/a>, or one of a series of others<\/a>). But among humanists and popular writers concerned with environmental issues, the verdict can sometimes look as if it’s already in<\/a> and the Anthropocene is here to stay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The term’s valence is sometimes taken to be negative<\/a> (“What a mess we\u2019ve made of things!”), sometimes positive (“We are as gods<\/a>,” as Stewart Brand has said, and may as well start acting like it), and most frequently a mix of the two (we\u2019ve “ended nature<\/a>” and are, for better or worse, in control of the wreckage). It rarely carries any assurance that things will continue indefinitely in the way they are going now. And its critics<\/a>, by now<\/a>, are legion<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The more optimistic among us like to speculate about a future that does better<\/em> than the present. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The main dividing line within the ranks of these “optimists” (a word I’ll use loosely) is one that separates technophilic modernists<\/a> — believers in<\/a> a “good Anthropocene<\/a>” who follow Brand\u2019s inclination that humans are “as gods” and who desire, like the biblical God, to shape the world into our image — and those whose estimation of humanity\u2019s capacities is much less sanguine, more humble<\/a>, and more cautious<\/a>. The latter, among which I usually count myself, seek not a future dominated by humans (or by machines), but one that allows for the flourishing of a diversity of mutually beneficial relationships among many living beings<\/a> including <\/em>humans. (And some split the difference by redefining “good Anthropocene<\/a>” in more humble terms, or by envisioning wilder fusions<\/a> of biology, technology, and ecology.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s difficult to articulate a hopeful vision of the future without giving it a name, and several have been proposed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the ranks of terms unlikely to catch on very widely, there are Donna Haraway’s<\/a> darkly captivating “Chthulucene<\/a>,” Glenn Albrecht’s more functionalist “Symbiocene<\/a>,” John Michael Greer’s open-ended “Neocene<\/a>,” and David Abram’s ambivalently optimistic “Humilocene<\/a>.” (There seems no inherent reason why an epoch of humility, as Abram calls for, couldn’t also be an epoch of humiliations.) A little less jargony is “Ecocene<\/a>,” now found in the names of schools<\/a>, journals<\/a>, and design proposals<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beyond the “-cene” is Thomas Berry\u2019s geologically more ambitious term \u201cEcozoic<\/a>,\u201d which too has come to be used by centers<\/a>, schools (including my university\u2019s Leadership for the Ecozoic<\/a> program, which my own EcoCultureLab<\/a> has emulated in its self-description<\/a>), and occasionally elsewhere. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The problem with jumping levels from the “-cene” to the “-zoic” — as I\u2019ve come to realize thanks to an innocent question raised about it by my 11 year old son — is that its geological significance suggests the inevitability of catastrophe: \u201cEcozoic\u201d is intended to be<\/a> the successor to the Cenozoic in the series “Paleozoic \u2013 Mesozoic \u2013 Cenozoic” (all of them being part of the Phanerozoic, the era in which life appears), and each of these has ended with a mass extinction. (A “mass extinction” is defined geologically<\/a> as an extinction of at least 75% of known species in a period of about two million years.*) It\u2019s that ending that has allowed for a dramatically new set of relations to arise among surviving species.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Berry used to describe our time as the \u201cterminal Cenozoic,\u201d which would mean that we are getting pretty close to the end of life not only as we<\/em> know it, but as Earth has known it for the last 65 million years. I don\u2019t think he quite intended the catastrophism that suggests; the term is meant to be less of a geological time marker and more of an inspirational call to build a world in which animate life (zoos<\/em>) can ecologically flourish in a common home (oikos<\/em>, meaning ecological home). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In any case, we are no doubt facing<\/em> a mass extinction of this scale. But it hasn\u2019t happened yet, and if it does, it\u2019s unlikely that humanity would survive to tell the tale (in any form recognizable to us), let alone contribute to the harmonious set of relations Berry envisioned between humans and nature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Geologists need not be the definers of these kinds of things, so we could go with “Ecozoic” for its inspirational value and ignore the catastrophist implications. (Or “Chthulucene,” which for my money is the most evocative of the “-cenes,” and just work with it until it’s understood.) But it’s worth considering what alternatives there might be. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If “Ecocene” is still too technical, there’s always “Ecological Era” (capitalized or not), which has a history of usage that long predates “Anthropocene<\/a>.” That it doesn’t pay much attention to the technical definition of “era” among geologists might just be to its benefit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But even that may seem too scientific for popular usage. Politics has given us plenty of utopian alternatives — from anarcho-communist, socialist, and open-endedly postcapitalist<\/a> visions to green<\/a>, Indigenous<\/a>, Afro-<\/a>, BIPOC<\/a>, and trans-<\/a> futures of one or another inflection. Most of the first, more politically “modernist” group, are different enough from real-world efforts at instituting anything like them (socialism in deed always having been somewhat different from socialism in aspiration) that they may be best left in the bin labeled “utopian<\/a>” — literally, no-places<\/a><\/em>, since our imagining of them reflects no place yet attained, even if glimpses of them, as David Graeber and David Wengrow<\/a> suggest, are to be found all across history. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The arts<\/a> have given more promising glimpses<\/a> of utopia<\/a>, if only because they beckon but do not try to convince. And it’s no coincidence that the more resonantly diverse forms of utopian imagination have emerged in literature, the visual arts, and music. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Utopia is always tainted by the possibility of its going wrong and turning dystopian, so my own preference has been to opt for ecotopian<\/a> scenarios, visions that are not “no-places” but “home-places<\/a>,” each distinct<\/a> because of its location within a history of possibilities realized to be ecological in the multiplicity of ways conveyed by (at least) the three ecologies<\/a> of materiality, sociality, and perception\/mediation. The term “ecotopia” is a bit too overdetermined by the book that introduced it<\/a>, and its uses have perhaps been too freewheeling (judging by books like Alan Marshall’s all-over-the-map Ecotopia 2021<\/em><\/a>). But it remains provocative<\/a> enough in its prefigurative<\/a> possibilities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The problem with all of these candidates for a viable post-Anthropocene is their presumed universality: from the Neocene to the Ecozoic to the Ecological Era, each presumes an authority to name something that would be named for all<\/em>, in a world<\/a> and on a planet where the “all” has never existed<\/a> except as a project of power (colonial-plus-religious-plus-scientific power, in the case of the last 500 years). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The question for me is whether there is a way to proceed forward without naming one future for all. Is the “ecotopian” terminology open enough to be able to graft itself onto more specific futures — Indigenous futures of one kind or another, Afro-futures, local and regional futures of various kinds — without subsuming them into itself, but with mutual benefit to both in the many relations that might be possible? Is the “eco,” with its twin roots in science and in the Hellenic etymology of home and household, a viable partner to the pluriversal<\/a> future imaginaries that appear outside<\/em> of the ecological, scientific, modernist, Anthropocenic, and ostensibly “universal” (which are never universal)? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Matthew Schneider-Mayerson’s and Brent Ryan Bellamy’s rendition<\/a> of the ecotopian (read the book if you have not) suggests that it is or at least could be, and I look forward to further articulations of it in other forms. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In any case, at a time when bleakness reigns, it’s helpful to reignite our capacity for imagining better futures. Other terminological suggestions are welcome! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

*Note: The definition of mass extinctions was added after the original publication of this article. The five known mass extinction events are indicated in the graph below. While the current extinction crisis is on course toward that kind of level, it is a long way from having reached it yet. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Big<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the Ecocene, the Chthulucene, the Ecozoic, and other Holocene successor terms The term “Anthropocene” has come to be accepted among many intellectuals as the best, or perhaps least worst, name for the geological present, when human activities have come to dominate the planet. It’s still debated among geologists, with “Holocene” or “Late Holocene” preferred […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[688615],"tags":[123667,710341,710367,710340,710366,520621,455146,710365,520633,710343,354,455019,660392,710342,284,25064],"class_list":["post-12803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anthropo_scene","tag-anthropocene","tag-cenozoic","tag-chthulucene","tag-dystopia","tag-ecocene","tag-ecotopia","tag-ecozoic","tag-futures","tag-futurism","tag-futurology","tag-imagination","tag-late-holocene","tag-pluriverse","tag-terminal-cenozoic","tag-thomas-berry","tag-utopia"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4IC4a-3kv","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10098,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2019\/03\/17\/p-n-transition-or-toward-the-neocene\/","url_meta":{"origin":12803,"position":0},"title":"P-N transition, or, toward the Neocene","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"March 17, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"It's nice to see archdruid John Michael Greer's proposal for a \"Pleistocene-Neocene transition\" get a little traction in the science press -- specifically, in a Science Alert article by psychologist Matthew Adams. Greer, whose writings on religion and ecology are respectably out-of-the-box, advocates against the Anthropocene label on the basis\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Anthropocene"","block_context":{"text":"Anthropocene","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/anthropo_scene\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2019\/03\/Titanicentersicefields-2.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2019\/03\/Titanicentersicefields-2.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2019\/03\/Titanicentersicefields-2.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2019\/03\/Titanicentersicefields-2.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":7686,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2014\/07\/07\/against-the-anthropocene\/","url_meta":{"origin":12803,"position":1},"title":"Against the Anthropocene","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"July 7, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The following is a guest post by Kieran Suckling, Executive Director of the nonprofit\u00a0Center for Biological Diversity. It follows the discussion begun\u00a0here\u00a0and in some\u00a0AESS conference sessions, including Andy Revkin's keynote talk\u00a0(viewable here)\u00a0and responses to it (such as\u00a0Clive Hamilton's).\u00a0 I In considering why the name \u201cAnthropocene\u201d has been proposed, why it\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Anthropocene"","block_context":{"text":"Anthropocene","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/anthropo_scene\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"setting-sun-smokestacks","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2014\/07\/setting-sun-smokestacks-275x179.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9278,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2017\/05\/18\/the-sf-of-sustainability\/","url_meta":{"origin":12803,"position":2},"title":"The SF of sustainability","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"May 18, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Since it's the Holocene\u00a0that has provided the conditions for the (human-led) biogeochemical experimentation that has now likely achieved a runaway state, and since \"Holocene\" was never anything other than a placeholder term -- it only means \"entirely new\" -- it seems inappopriate to replace it with the term \"Anthropocene.\" \"Holocene\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Anthropocene"","block_context":{"text":"Anthropocene","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/anthropo_scene\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9722,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2018\/06\/20\/10-years-of-late-holocene-life\/","url_meta":{"origin":12803,"position":3},"title":"10 years (of Late Holocene life)","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"June 20, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"(Or twice the video below.) Immanence passed its tenth anniversary last month and somehow failed to celebrate it. (The actual anniversary, May 11, marks the posting of\u00a0this two-line fragment.\u00a0Regular posts took another seven months to appear, or at least to take on a permanent form.) To celebrate, I recently re-did\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Anthropocene"","block_context":{"text":"Anthropocene","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/anthropo_scene\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/EkCc_qiI7UA\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9811,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2018\/08\/12\/welcome-to-the-meghalayan\/","url_meta":{"origin":12803,"position":4},"title":"Welcome to the… Meghalayan?","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"August 12, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Geology watchers were more than a little surprised last month to learn that we are living in a new age called the Meghalayan, which apparently began about 4200 years ago. After all the\u00a0excitement\u00a0over the\u00a0Anthropocene, it seems that a rival group of geological stratigraphers -- one tasked with naming the sub-parts\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Anthropocene"","block_context":{"text":"Anthropocene","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/anthropo_scene\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13077,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2022\/12\/19\/the-event-that-might-be-big\/","url_meta":{"origin":12803,"position":5},"title":"The event that might be big","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"December 19, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"The New York Times' Raymond Zhong summarizes the latest deliberations on the Anthropocene in an article called \"For Planet Earth, This Might Be the Start of a New Age.\" The article features some good implicit sociology-of-science: Like the zoologists who regulate the names of animal species or the astronomers who\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Anthropocene"","block_context":{"text":"Anthropocene","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/anthropo_scene\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2022\/12\/image-1.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2022\/12\/image-1.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2022\/12\/image-1.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2022\/12\/image-1.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/99"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12803"}],"version-history":[{"count":26,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12803\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12875,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12803\/revisions\/12875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}