Welcome to Archinect's Lexicon. Architecture notoriously appropriates and invents new language – sometimes to make appeals, sometimes to fill conceptual gaps, sometimes nonsensically. But once a word is used, it's alive, and part of the conversation. We're here to take notes.
Anthropocene [ænθrəˈ poʊ sin], noun: "the era of geological time during which human activity is considered to be the dominant influence on the environment, climate, and ecology of the earth" (Oxford English Dictionary).
The term "Anthropocene" first appeared on Archinect in April of 2007, in a news post recommending a series of lectures by economist Jeffrey Sachs. In June of 2014, the Oxford English Dictionary officially adopted it:
The -cene suffix, derived from the Greek for ‘new’ or ‘recent’, has been used since the 1830s to form names denoting the epochs and strata of the present Cenozoic era of geological time, ranging from the Palaeocene to the Holocene. The Holocene epoch covers roughly the past 10,000 years, starting after the retreat of the ice in the last glaciation of the Pleistocene. That period corresponds with the major developments of human society and technology from the Neolithic to the modern era, but the term Anthropocene (from anthropo- ‘human’, as in anthropology) is typically used to refer to a much shorter period in which human activity has become a major ecological force, beginning with the Industrial Revolution.
Nicholas Korody provides more background in his "Architecture of the Anthropocene, part 1" piece:
The Anthropocene was first coined by Nobel laureate Paul Crutzen in 2002, who placed its starting point during the Industrial Revolution, which he considered a decisive-enough moment to serve as a breaking point with the preceding Holocene. For other scientists, this point dates farther back, to the beginnings of human agriculture that mark the geological record.
In Korody's own definition, the anthropocene is: "an increasingly used term, the origins and verifiability of which are currently disputed, for a new geologic epoch marked by the alteration of the Earth's ecological systems by human activities". (September, 2014)
Related terms: climate change, global warming, post-industrial
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9 Comments
Great idea.
Thanks Lian! I'd love this to become an accountable resource, and also provoke ongoing discussion.
what do you mean by "accountable resource"?
@Nam: Reliable, held to a high standard, informative.
Deep down in the back of my contrarian mind I am actually excited about anthropomorphic climate change. It implies humanity is close to realizing control of our own environment.
In the short term of the next century we'll suffer problems adjusting, but in the long run we will be better prepared to understand how this world works and manipulate to our advantage or aesthetic preference. As many deniers have accurately (but misleadingly) noted there is natural climate variation - and in the future we'll be prepared to compensate for this. Assuming of course that we get through this first burst of unintended warming, which I expect we will with the help of some seawalls, floating platforms and improved irrigation policies.
Or maybe I just read too much science fiction in my youth...
hey how come the tag on this doesn't lead to same place as the "bike-wash" one?
midlander, thats pretty optimistic. We humans can't even stop blowing each other up and you think that we are going to be able to deal with the effects of climate change. Based on history, its likely that certain wealthy areas will deal with it while poor areas will get poorer and perhaps suffer mass die offs from disease, famine, thirst...The rich will survive while continuously fighting for more resources and many poor people will die.
Nam - thanks for pointing that out. I fixed the tag.
jla-x, I don't disagree with your vision. I'm not saying I envision utopia. I'm saying I think we'll get through climate change and in doing so develop a useful body of knowledge and tools for manipulating the earth. The agricultural revolutions 10,000ish years ago almost certainly led to massive wars and destruction of hunter-gatherer socities, but the survivors did very well once the technology stabilized. Large areas of Western Europe, the Middle East, and South/East Asia have been non-natural ecosystems for millenia, which supported the development of cities and the entirety of culture as we know it. I see climate change as the next step towards climate control, and ultimately a profoundly different culture.
Actually I'm surprised to be called optimistic. One thing I view as inevitable is significant climate change due to the problem of coordinating any meaningful limits on carbon output - a difficulty like long-term peace that depends on mutual cooperation between unequal parties. And make no mistake: I don't like that innocent people will suffer, nor do I think we should ignore their problems. I simply mean that there will be adaptors who survive, and that as a group those societies that adapt will be in a very strong position to transform the world to their benefit.
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