The Shock of the Anthropocene

Book review by Julia Fahrenkamp-Uppenbrink
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ECG Bulletin January 2016

Have we entered a new epoch in which humans dominate geological processes at the Earth surface? The pervasive impacts of humans on all aspects of the environment show no sign of abating, with potentially devastating consequences for humans and wildlife. The term for this epoch—the Anthropocene—appears to suggest that it is an inevitable outcome of our growing population and advanced state of civilization. In The Shock of the Anthropocene, historians Christophe Bonneuil and Jean-Baptiste Fressoz show that far from inevitable, today’s situation results from political and economic choices made despite concerns about the environmental impacts raised since the early days of the industrial revolution.

Antique aermotor windmill. Credit: Kenneth Kiefer/Shutterstock

A defining feature of the Anthropocene is the rise in carbon dioxide and the resulting climate change; other factors include the rapid loss of biodiversity and changes in biogeochemical cycles as a result of artificial fertilisation. However, The Shock of the Anthropocene does not provide simple answers or a single narrative for how to respond to these interrelated crises. This is entirely intentional, as the authors aim to portray the many different ways in which our current epoch can be understood and illuminated. In the process, they use alternative terms for the Anthropocene that initially seem cumbersome but arguably better capture the driving forces behind the environmental destructiveness of modern life.

One such term, the Thermocene, is used to chart the history of energy use. In the early 19th century, large hydraulic projects provided energy for the growing textile industry in northern England and Scotland at lower prices than for coal. In the US, state-of-the-art wind mills played a key role in the agricultural development of the Midwest in the 19th century, while the 1920s and 1930s saw the development of solar water heaters and low-energy homes that provided large potential cost savings. Yet, fossil fuels won out in these and many other cases, with solar, water and wind energy reduced to “alternative energies” that are only now seeing a renaissance. Bonneuil and Fressoz argue that the reasons were often ideological and political rather than technological. In the case of the British textile industry, coal provided a decentralised source of energy that did not require coordination between the entrepreneurs of the early industrial revolution. Wind and solar power in the US lost out in the 1950s, when powerful electricity companies had a strong interest in extending the national grid to all consumers.

Other chapters explore the role of war and the military (the Thanatocene), consumerism (the Phagocene), and the prevalent economic system (the Capitalocene) in bringing about the Anthropocene. But perhaps most interesting from the point of view of environmental chemistry is the history of environmental warnings that went unheeded. Today’s environmental scientists are far from alone in their concern for the environment. As early as 1778, George-Louis Buffon wrote that “the entire face of the Earth today bears the imprint of human power” and warned nations not to “use everything up without renewing anything.” And in 1913, Edmond Perrier asked whether “we have the right to monopolise the Earth for ourselves alone, and to destroy for our profit… everything it has produced that is finest and most powerful.” These words retain their relevance today.

Rather than considering ourselves the masters of our environment, humans will need to, in Bonneuil and Fressoz’s words, place nature “at the heart of our conception of freedom.” Given today’s dominant consumerism, this may seem unlikely. But by laying out the many factors and circumstances that brought about our current predicament despite knowledge of the detrimental effects, The Shock of the Anthropocene helps the reader to conceive of a different future in which nature is no longer seen as separate from humanity.

The Shock of the Anthropocene, Christophe Bonneuil and Jean-Baptiste Fressoz, Verso Books, London, 2016, pp. 320, ISBN: 1784780812, 9781784780814.