Proponents<\/a> of that “good Anthropocene” tend to make it sound far easier to get there than it would be. The technological “solutions” many of them have offered are mostly pie-in-the-sky, with risks not worth taking. Real solutions<\/a> would require dramatic renegotiation of power relations, lifestyles, living arrangements, and modes of social and technological production. Ending fossil-fuel use and ramping up renewable energy production are certainly part of it, but hardly all.<\/p>\n Alternatives to a “good Anthropocene,” however, are not very attractive: for one thing, they would all involve dramatic (and rapid) reduction of human numbers, which isn\u2019t a great sales pitch for action. (Who suicides first?) And unfortunately, those who benefit most from the status quo and its fossil-fuel regime are those most committing to standing in the way of the transition that could get us there. Demonizing these people won\u2019t help, but converting them is probably inefficient.<\/p>\n The only solution I see is to keep growing a global alliance for a just transition, with vulnerable (indigenous, coastal, and other) communities as central players, and to mobilize on every scale and at every opportunity we get. Does anyone see any reasonable alternative? If not, then can we just get on with it?<\/p>\n *Note: Among the better articles summarizing the “good Anthropocene” debate are these two by\u00a0Bennett et al<\/a>\u00a0(connected to the Seeds of Good Anthropocenes<\/a> project) and by Dalby<\/a>. Unfortunately, both are behind the publishers’ pay-walls. If anyone would like a copy of either, please e-mail me. (And keep bugging me if I don’t reply.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Let\u2019s face facts: Life in such cold climates as the one I live in (it was 8\u00b0F\/-14\u00b0C here this morning) would hardly be possible, for us in such numbers as we are, without fossil fuels. The harnessing of fossil fuel energy has enabled tremendous innovation — innovation that, if managed well, could help us get […]<\/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":[688615,520594],"tags":[274578,123667,455015,399,455146,350211,455054,455144,455145],"class_list":["post-9548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anthropo_scene","category-climate-politics","tag-agency","tag-anthropocene","tag-climate-solutions","tag-climate-justice","tag-ecozoic","tag-fossil-fuel-era","tag-global-justice","tag-good-anthropocene","tag-sustainability-transition"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4IC4a-2u0","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7645,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2014\/06\/12\/on-naming-the-anthropocene\/","url_meta":{"origin":9548,"position":0},"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":8265,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2015\/07\/21\/bandwagocene\/","url_meta":{"origin":9548,"position":1},"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":7686,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2014\/07\/07\/against-the-anthropocene\/","url_meta":{"origin":9548,"position":2},"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":8170,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2015\/03\/24\/the-orbis-spike\/","url_meta":{"origin":9548,"position":3},"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":7754,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2014\/08\/18\/anthropocene-too-serious-for-postmodern-games\/","url_meta":{"origin":9548,"position":4},"title":"Anthropocene: Too serious for postmodern games","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"August 18, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The following is a guest post by Clive Hamilton, professor of public ethics at Charles Sturt University in Canberra, Australia. It continues the Immanence series \"Debating the Anthropocene.\" See here,\u00a0here, and here for previous articles in the series. (And note that some lengthy comments have been added to the previous\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Anthropocene"","block_context":{"text":"Anthropocene","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/anthropo_scene\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"040325_hmed_iceberg_1130a.grid-6x2","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2014\/08\/040325_hmed_iceberg_1130a.grid-6x2-275x163.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7208,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2014\/01\/20\/anthropocene-readings\/","url_meta":{"origin":9548,"position":5},"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":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9548","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=9548"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9548\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9550,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9548\/revisions\/9550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/godsofadvertising.files.wordpress.com\/2014\/04\/homer_angry2.png?resize=150%2C104\")
<\/p>\n