The Anthropogenic Debate - Scholars Divided

In the following article I examine various academic debates and discussions by various professors of note who are vocal within the environmental community. Namely, Masami Yuki, a professor of English at Kanazawa University, Japan who specializes in environmental literature and Nancy Langston, a professor of environmental policy at Michigan Technological University.

Yuki and Langston discuss the scale of the Anthropocene in the two video conversations with Jørgensen. Yuki focuses on the local perspective of caring, while Langston focuses on environmental justice. The human influence on our planet is possibly so powerful that it is everywhere; it can be found locally and globally (Steffen et al., 2011; Yuki, 2012). Both elaborations made me conclude that they state that humans are ignorant and therefore have fear about planetary influences in our daily lives, as thinking that something which is far away, will not affect us, while pollution can travel through wind (Langston, n.d.), but also that something which is rather nearby, will also not affect us, as our contaminated local food (Yuki, 2012). This is due a lack of knowledge. Yuki and Langston argue for more awareness, as many other scholars. Ellis & Ramankutty (2008) state that the natural ecosystems are embedded within the human systems, therefore we have the power in shaping our world, not the ‘wild’ nature. They enable that everyone should be aware of that the climate is changing on our planet and that this is due our human activity and we must change our role for this shift.

Lekan also states the Anthropocene is locally and globally, therefore the need for more awareness and perceptions: “Yet as we contemplate the ecological and ethical ramifications of the Anthropocene, fractals do challenge any simplistic homogenizing or scalar reconciliation of the local and the global and point to an inexhaustibly exuberant nature beyond doomsday narratives of finitude, revenge, or atonement” (Lekan, 2014). In addition, the concept of planetary boundaries of Röckstrom et al. (2009) indicates how life on the planet can exist, which direction we should not take and how this needs to be managed with care (Röckstrom et al., 2009; Steffen et al., 2011). It is rather utopian, but the main aim is to raise awareness about our environment. Yuki also highly focusses on the sense of care from a local perspective, as everything is connected on the planet (Yuki, 2012).

The different scholars (Steffen et al., 2011; Yuki, 2012; Langston, n.d.; Ellis & Ramankutty, 2008; Lekan, 2014) mentioned above all argue that the Anthropocene is all around us, locally and globally, but we lack knowledge to make a change. They state that there are insidious changes and crises that escape our minds because we do not notice it or because we are waiting for the predicted future to occur. We should not let ignorance or the fear for the unknown influence us. Our world has often radically changed and improved. This was not by nature, but by the people themselves, therefore it is important to create this awareness among everyone.

References:

Ellis, E. C., & Ramankutty, N. (2008). Putting people in the map: anthropogenic biomes of the world. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 6(8), 439–447. Retrieved from: https://doi.org/10.1890/070062

Lekan, T. (2014). Fractal Eaarth: Visualizing the Global Environment in the Anthropocene. Environmental Humanities, (5), 171–201. Retrieved from: http://environmentalhumanities.org/arch/vol5/5.10.pdf

Rockström, J., Steffen, W., Noone, K., Persson, Å., Chapin, F. S., Lambin, E. F., … Foley, J. A. (2009). A safe operating space for humanity. Nature, 461(7263), 472–475. Retrieved from: https://doi.org/10.1038/461472a

Steffen, W., Persson, Å., Deutsch, L., Zalasiewicz, J., Williams, M., Richardson, K., . . . Stockholm Resilience Centre. (2011). The anthropocene: From global change to planetary stewardship. Ambio, 40(7), 739-761.

Yuki, M. (2012). Why Eat Toxic Food? Mercury Poisoning, Minamata, and Literary Resistance to Risks of Food. Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment, 19(4), 732–750. Retrieved from: https://doi.org/10.1093/isle/iss107