Overgeneralization
One of the main issues with naming this epoch the Anthropocene is the overgeneralization of human’s responsibility for degrading the earth. The Anthropocene places equal blame on each human being for degrading the earth when in fact different people have different weightage in this situation. Comparing the CEO of companies like Chevron, Exxon and Shell to the indigenous people of the Yanomami tribe in the amazon, the CEOs clearly are more responsible for damaging the earth. The world’s richest 1% contributes to carbon footprint of 175 times higher than the poorest 10%, hence rather than all humans, capitalism is the one driving this regime shift. Additionally, colonialism is also brought the idea of capitalism from Europe to the rest of the world, resulting in the exploitation of nature resources of countries like India and Brazil at an unprecedented rate. In this case, rather than calling this new geological epoch the “Anthropocene”, many have argued that the “Capitalocene” should be used instead to correctly pinpoint the reason why earth is damaged in the first place.
Men’s arrogance
The name centres around what humans have done to the environment, inflating human’s importance and impacts on earth on a geological timescale. Comparing the entire geological timescale to a 24-hour clock, our ancestors only existed two minutes to midnight and modern humans came about seconds before the clock strike 12 again. Although the dinosaurs lasted for an hour between 10.40-11.40pm, their existence is nearly wiped out if not for a few fossils following the subsequent extinction event despite them dominating the earth for a good 180 million years. Compared to 180 million years, human’s 70 years since the great acceleration seems to pale in comparison. At the end of the day, we still focus the discussion on how human had dominance over the environment which resulted in the cascade of environmental problems. After all, doesn’t it seem too self-centred to name a geological period after ourselves? Refer to the video below for a clearer idea the geological time scale based on a 24 hour clock.
Video credit: DiscoveryChannelInd from Youtube
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