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Chapter 7 - Politics in the Anthropocene

from Part Two - One Anthropocene; Many Stories

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 March 2022

By
Manuel Arias-Maldonado
Edited by
Julia Adeney Thomas
Julia Adeney Thomas
Affiliation:
University of Notre Dame, Indiana
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Summary

What does it mean for politics that human beings have transitioned, or are still transitioning, from the Holocene to the Anthropocene? The latter marks the rise of a new political actor, namely humanity as a whole. Although the disruption of the Earth System was not the result of a conscious decision, securing the habitability of the planet requires a concerted effort on the part of living humans. This chapter suggests that the shared vulnerability of human beings on an increasingly unstable planet may encourage a new self-understanding of the species as a global political agent. In the meantime, three approaches to the Anthropocene can be distinguished: liberal democracy, eco-authoritarianism, and green communitarianism. None of them is being globally implemented, and it would be naive to expect otherwise. They will most likely coexist in the future, thus expressing in different ways the common will to face the dangers of the Anthropocene.

Keywords

Anthropoceneliberal democracyeco-authoritarianismcommunitarianismdegrowthclimate changehuman speciespolitics
Type
Chapter
Information
Altered Earth
Getting the Anthropocene Right
 , pp. 160 - 181
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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