{"id":13077,"date":"2022-12-19T09:52:57","date_gmt":"2022-12-19T14:52:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/?p=13077"},"modified":"2022-12-19T09:53:16","modified_gmt":"2022-12-19T14:53:16","slug":"the-event-that-might-be-big","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2022\/12\/19\/the-event-that-might-be-big\/","title":{"rendered":"The event that might be big"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The New York Times’<\/em> 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<\/a>.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The article features some good implicit sociology-of-science:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Like the zoologists who regulate the names of animal species or the astronomers who decide what counts as a\u00a0planet<\/a>, geology\u2019s timekeepers work conservatively, by design. They set classifications that will be reflected in academic studies, museums and textbooks for generations to come.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

And a few pieces of everyday wisdom a scientifically literate public should be able to recite, but most likely wouldn’t make it half-way through:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\n

Right now, according to the current timeline, we are in \u2014 deep breath \u2014 the Meghalayan Age of the Holocene Epoch of the Quaternary Period of the Cenozoic Era of the Phanerozoic Eon, and have been for 4,200 years.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

And a good wrap-up of the Anthropocene Working Group’s<\/a> recent work:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

It took a decade of debate \u2014 in emails, academic articles and meetings in London, Berlin, Oslo and beyond \u2014 for the Anthropocene Working Group to nail down a key aspect of its proposal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a 29-to-4 vote in 2019, the group agreed to recommend that the Anthropocene began in the mid-20th century. That\u2019s when human populations, economic activity and greenhouse gas emissions began skyrocketing worldwide, leaving indelible traces: plutonium isotopes from nuclear explosions, nitrogen from fertilizers, ash from power plants.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The working group has been voting on the status of the Anthropocene (is it an epoch, an age, or what?) and on the location of the “golden spike<\/a>” that would exemplify — or best indicate<\/a>, in a Peircian<\/a> sense — the epoch\/era\/whatever in all things geological (from a list<\/a> recently reduced to twelve<\/a> and including “a peat bog in Poland, the ice of the Antarctic Peninsula, a bay in Japan,” and “a coral reef off the Louisiana coast”). But it isn’t letting the (Schr\u00f6dingerian<\/a>) cat out of the bag until their work is ready for the darts and comets likely to strike it in the open atmosphere (\/pandemonium) of public debate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

It is then that a far more contentious debate about the Anthropocene could begin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many scholars still aren\u2019t sure the mid-20th century cutoff makes sense. It is awkwardly recent, especially for archaeologists and anthropologists who would have to start referring to World War II artifacts as \u201cpre-Anthropocene.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

And then there are those (including me) who think the Anthropocene should be defined more loosely as an “event<\/a>“: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Events don\u2019t appear on the timeline; no bureaucracy of scientists regulates them. But they have been transformative for the planet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The filling of Earth\u2019s skies with oxygen, roughly 2.1 to 2.4 billion years ago \u2014 geologists call that the Great Oxidation Event. Mass extinctions are events, as is the burst of diversity in marine life 460 to 485 million years ago.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

In other words, stay tuned. “Might be the start of” something or other. Could be big. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

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 decide what counts as a\u00a0planet, […]<\/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":[123569,16878],"class_list":["post-13077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anthropo_scene","tag-anthropocene-working-group","tag-science-studies"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4IC4a-3oV","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7208,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2014\/01\/20\/anthropocene-readings\/","url_meta":{"origin":13077,"position":0},"title":"Anthropocene readings","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"January 20, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 I'm thinking of making my Spring semester graduate class, \"Environment, Science, and Society in the Anthropocene,\" into a semi-public seminar series, with a blog where we will share links to readings and videos as well as discussions. (Actual meetings will not be online, but will be open to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Anthropocene"","block_context":{"text":"Anthropocene","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/anthropo_scene\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Clark","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2014\/01\/Clark-183x275.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8170,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2015\/03\/24\/the-orbis-spike\/","url_meta":{"origin":13077,"position":1},"title":"The Orbis spike","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"March 24, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"In an article in Nature entitled \"Defining the Anthropocene,\" geographers and climate scientists Simon Lewis and Mark Maslin provide a new\u00a0approach to dating this era that focuses on an event they call the \"Orbis spike,\" a dip in atmospheric CO2\u00a0occurring around 1610. Effectively, what their proposal does it to allow\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Anthropocene"","block_context":{"text":"Anthropocene","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/anthropo_scene\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"orbis-spike","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2015\/03\/orbis-spike-275x117.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8265,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2015\/07\/21\/bandwagocene\/","url_meta":{"origin":13077,"position":2},"title":"Bandwagocene","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"July 21, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"These days, it takes a course release for an academic to keep up with the avalanche of books\u00a0being published with titles that feature the word \"Anthropocene.\" To read them would take a sabbatical. Doing anything approximating a \"slow read\" would require, well, retirement. But that's no reason not to try.\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":10577,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2020\/04\/29\/image-ecologies-spiritual-polytropy-and-the-anthropocene\/","url_meta":{"origin":13077,"position":3},"title":"Image ecologies, spiritual polytropy, and the Anthropocene","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"April 29, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"An article of mine by that title has appeared in a special issue of the Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture on \"Popular Culture, Religion, and the Anthropocene.\" The article contains the theoretical core of the book I'm currently writing on image regimes. It builds on my\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Spirit matter"","block_context":{"text":"Spirit matter","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/religion-spirituality\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7645,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2014\/06\/12\/on-naming-the-anthropocene\/","url_meta":{"origin":13077,"position":4},"title":"On naming the Anthropocene","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"June 12, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The following are the comments I prepared for the roundtable \"The Arts and Humanities Respond to the Anthropocene.\" They follow in the line of critical thinking on the Anthropocene initiated by\u00a0gatherings like the Anthropocene Project (see here, here, and here, and some of the posts\u00a0at A(S)CENE) and journals like Environmental\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Anthropocene"","block_context":{"text":"Anthropocene","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/anthropo_scene\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"HABITUS-9-medium-1024x682","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2014\/06\/HABITUS-9-medium-1024x682-275x183.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":13546,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2024\/03\/22\/anthropocene-dust-up-what-it-means\/","url_meta":{"origin":13077,"position":5},"title":"Anthropocene dust-up: what it means","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"March 22, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"The recent International Union of Geological Sciences decision to reject the proposed \"Anthropocene epoch\" might seem confusing. Here's a piece of draft material from my forthcoming book-in-progress, The New Lives of Images: Digital Ecologies and Anthropocene Imaginaries in More-than-Human Worlds, that attempts to bring the situation up to date. Comments\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\/2024\/03\/image-2.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2024\/03\/image-2.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2024\/03\/image-2.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2024\/03\/image-2.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2024\/03\/image-2.png?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2024\/03\/image-2.png?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13077","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=13077"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13077\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13082,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13077\/revisions\/13082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}