Concept Of Anthropocene Research Articles

The Right to a Healthy Environment in the Democratic Republic of Congo: An Anthropocentric Conception

The Right to a Healthy Environment in the Democratic Republic of Congo: An Anthropocentric Conception

Misconceptions about the valuation of ecosystem services

The concept of ecosystem services – the benefits humans derive from functioning ecosystems – has been around for at least 4 decades. Attempts to value those services in monetary and other units have been around for just as long. However, several misconceptions have sprung up about ecosystem services, and especially the valuation of those services in monetary units, that are counterproductive to further dialogue, research, and solutions. This paper attempts to address some of those misconceptions, including showing that: (1) ecosystem services is not an anthropocentric concept; (2) economics is not only the market; (3) valuation is not commodification or privatization; (4) expressing relative values in monetary units is not necessarily ‘market-based’; (5) in a world of trade-offs, whether to perform a valuation is not a choice since it happens implicitly; (6) ‘intrinsic values’ are about rights, not relative valuation; and (7) relative valuation and rights-based approaches are complimentary not mutually exclusive. I address each of these misconceptions in turn and end with a plea for constructive dialogue on these important issues, not continuing unproductive debate founded on fundamental misconceptions.

Identification, computation, and mapping of anthropogenic landforms in urban areas: Case studies in the historical centre of Genoa, Italy (UNESCO World Heritage)

Urban geomorphology is a recent discipline that has gained a great deal of interest amongst the scientific community also for its clear connection with the concept of Anthropocene. The identification of anthropogenic landforms in an urban area requires a multidisciplinary approach, mostly using multi-temporal map comparisons, direct and indirect geognostic surveys, and detailed study of the urban landscape. Mediterranean cities have a particularly complex history: their original settlement usually dates back to the medieval period, but often to more ancient, occasionally even prehistoric, times. The result is an urban landscape characterised by modified natural landforms, but above all by anthropogenic landforms linked to the stratification of various urban phases. Reconstructing the landforms before major anthropogenic impacts of the last centuries is a particularly complex operation, and scientific research appears in its early stages. In this research, we introduce examples of the reconstruction of natural landforms in the historic centre of Genoa, a port city that experienced a peak of expansion in the Middle Ages and the Modern Age. The results obtained on four pilot areas highlight significant and previously unknown anthropic modifications and the associated landforms in the urban landscape. Large excavations, fills supported by ramparts, and sea embankments have been identified and quantitatively evaluated using a mixed approach between different disciplines: historical geography, geomatics, physical geography and geomorphology, and engineering geology. This methodology may be applied to other Mediterranean and extra-European urban contexts and may contribute, on the one hand, to the identification of potential geomorphological risks in urban areas and, on the other hand, to the use of urban landscape forms for geological heritage and geodiversity development activities.

Becoming a science teacher in the Anthropocene: scientific knowledge as ‘matters of concern’

ABSTRACT In the Anthropocene, there is a significant need for new ways to educate about science and environmental problems, including climate issues. This article explores Swedish teacher students’ discussions as they envision their future roles as science teachers in the light of the Anthropocene. At the beginning of their science teacher education, the teacher students are not fully immersed in the established discourses of the educational system as in-service teachers. In this study, we consider how these teacher students’ ‘fresh eyes’ bring views of how knowledge (especially chemistry-related knowledge) matters in education and teaching. Through a lecture that centred planetary boundaries and the Great Acceleration as representations of some main scientific models in the field, the teacher students were introduced to the concept of Anthropocene. Five focus group discussions followed this introduction. Thematic analysis reveals how the acquired knowledge of the introductory lesson challenges the students to express ‘matters of concern’ differently: partly considering a personal, everyday level and partly reformulating their role as future science teachers. The interrelation of these positions is also a concern for the concluding discussion. Furthermore, the article discusses these results as both concerns and possibilities for science education, including science teacher education.

Teaching global interdependence to health professions students during the Anthropocene epoch: Findings from documentary analysis of an interprofessional education course

Aim(s)To examine the effects of new course material that incorporated the Anthropocene and The Centers for Disease Control's (CDC) 'Climate Effects on Health' framework into an IPE course to enhance students' understanding global interdependence. BackgroundTeaching global interdependence with a suitable framework and relevant content in an introductory Interprofessional Education course in undergraduate programs is challenging when these early learners who do not have significant clinical experience. Therefore, it is necessary to adapt these courses to provide a framework that all students can relate to regardless of previous experience. DesignThe design for this study was qualitative document analysis. MethodThe required introductory IPE course was for students on the programs offered by the College of Health Sciences and the School of Nursing. Students (n = 142) from seven health professions programs, including athletic training (n=9), nursing (n=70), nutrition and dietetics (n=8), occupational therapy (n=15), physical therapy (n=31), radiation therapy (n=2) and magnetic resonance imaging and pre-professional students from other majors (n=5) were enrolled in this IPE course. The study used data derived from the final reflections submitted by the students. The CQI analysis focused on students enrolled in a dedicated interprofessional course related to health professions. ResultsWays interprofessional teams can address global challenges like the Anthropocene, climate-related illnesses and severe weather events were revealed in student responses. Three themes that emerged from the student responses included: public health collaborations, holistic health promotion and policy advocacy. ConclusionIncorporating the concept of Anthropocene and the 'Climate Effects on Health' framework into an IPE course can be a promising approach to shaping students' perception and enhancing their knowledge about global interdependence. By doing so, students can gain a deeper understanding of how human activities have an impact on the climate and ecology of the planet and how severe weather can lead to various health problems.

While clearing the forests: The social-ecological memory of trees in the Anthropocene.

The Anthropocene concept raises awareness of human-induced planetary changes but is criticized for being 'too global'. We examined the social-ecological memory that emerges from people-tree relationships in South American temperate territories, Chile. We integrated dendrochronology (analysis of tree rings of 35 memorial trees; 17 species) with dendrography (participant observation complemented with semi-structured and go-along interviews with 14 interviewees; six women, eight men). We found that assemblages of people-tree relationships reflect marked historical changes in the territory, associated with the historical clearing of forests, which may be imprinted in both tree growth rings and in the social meanings and practices associated with memorial trees. In devastated territories, practices of tree care emphasize interconnectedness, multispecies collaborations, and the blurring of boundaries between humans and other-than-humans. We discuss some of the interdisciplinary and relational insights of our study, which may prove valuable for future research, political agendas, and educational programs in South America and beyond.

Anthropocene disorder and the transcultural search for common-ness

In this article I seek a new way to understand the Anthropocene and its ecological crisis. I argue that we must first deconstruct the mainstream Herderian concept of culture, as it seems inadequate to capture how we deal with our life circumstances and choices, especially on the level of global events like the Anthropocene. I also suggest that the concept of transculturality may serve the purpose of understanding this situation better and may even offer a prospect of a process that might induce the common-ness that we are lacking as a species. After discussing the Anthropocene concept, I examine the idea of the search for a common-ness of humanity as a remedy for Anthropocene disorder. Finally, I present an overview of new universalist approaches to the Anthropocene and propose that the concept of transculturality as advanced by Wolfgang Welsch may provide a better basis for understanding the Anthropocene as a human predicament.

AI-Testimony, Conversational AIs and Our Anthropocentric Theory of Testimony

ABSTRACT The ability to interact in a natural language profoundly changes devices’ interfaces and potential applications of speaking technologies. Concurrently, this phenomenon challenges our mainstream theories of knowledge, such as how to analyze linguistic outputs of devices under existing anthropocentric theoretical assumptions. In section 1, I present the topic of machines that speak, connecting between Descartes and Generative AI. In section 2, I argue that accepted testimonial theories of knowledge and justification commonly reject the possibility that a speaking technological artifact can give testimony. In section 3, I identify three assumptions underlying the view that rejects conversational AIs – AI-based technologies that converse, as testifiers: conversational AIs (1) lack intentions, (2) cannot be normatively assessed, and (3) cannot constitute an object in trust relations, while humans can. In section 4, I propose the concept ‘AI-testimony’ for analyzing outputs of conversational AIs, suggesting three conditions for technologies to deliver AI-testimony: (1) content is propositional, (2) generated and delivered with no other human directly involved, (3) the output is perceived as phenomenologically similar to that of a human. I conclude that this concept overcomes the limitations of the anthropocentric concept of testimony, opening future directions of research without associating conversational AIs with human-like agency.

The Black Anthropocene: and the end(s) of the constitutionalizing project

This article is written in response to the assumptions and objectives of a recent project coming out of Tilburg Law School, called ‘Constitutionalizing in the Anthropocene’, but can be read just as easily as a stand-alone piece. The analysis presented here is based on an understanding of the concept ‘Anthropocene’ as rejecting modernist ontological assumptions about a split between human and nature. The concept says that this split is fictitious and can no longer hold in the present context of ecological crisis. The project to constitutionalize the conditions of living in the Anthropocene recognizes the importance of this shift but, this article argues, fails to fully acknowledge the implications for law. In contrast, this article explores the alternative concept of the ‘Black Anthropocene’ as a (para-)ontological understanding and an ethico-political response that better captures the concept of Anthropocene, including the legal implications. Grounded in the concept of Black Anthropocene, this article demarcates two distinct approaches to relationality and to the legal subject. It then utilizes this framing to rethink constitutionalization as disavowing the imbrication of law within a modernist ontology of separation and, as a result, the possibilities for constitutionalizing the Anthropocene at all. The article argues that focusing on anti-Blackness as central to the modernist ontology of human and world opens other possibilities for thought, leading us to question, rather than seek to preserve, the authority and legitimacy of projects of constitutionalization per se.

Trajectories of the Anthropocene as a boundary concept bridging debates about climate change and ecological collapse (years 2000–2019)

ABSTRACT Since its first appearance, the concept of the Anthropocene has achieved remarkable success in terms of users and audiences, among both specialists and non-specialists alike. While not yet formalised in the geologic timescale, how has this notion spread so widely and quickly? Given the concept’s trajectories across different media spheres and over its first two decades of circulation, the Anthropocene notion has had four main uses: a ‘proving use’ employed for collecting evidence for the human epoch’s official recognition; a ‘questioning use’ for criticising its epistemological and political shortcomings; a ‘mentioning use’ when taking it for granted as a catchword; and a ‘metaphorical use’ for conveying the rising problem of global warming and ecological collapse. Regarding this last metaphorical use, the Anthropocene appears to act as a boundary concept bridging debates about climate change and aligning apocalyptic imaginaries of the future. The success of the Anthropocene concept might therefore be explained not by virtue of its intrinsic properties, unspecified virality and predetermined trajectory, but rather by the crystallisation and frequency of its use as a boundary concept. As such, it plays an evoking function in discursively introducing the whole semantic domain of the climate crisis condition and establishing the basis for talking about its apocalyptic consequences. Being used for unifying these narratives about the past and future of humankind and for capturing the variety of changes caused to the planet, the Anthropocene’s fields of circulation have thus enlarged vastly outside its geological debate.

Sustainability and the new genesis of constitutionalism in the 21st century

Despite the advances that constitutionalism and humanism have made, the 20th century also saw an increase in individualism and anthropocentrism, resulting in a potentially irreversible global environmental crisis. It is in this context and in order to tackle these issues that the ethical and legal-political paradigm of sustainability has emerged. The general aim of this paper is therefore to characterize it as the structuring principle of the new genesis of constitutionalism. The specific objectives are to demonstrate its influence on the entire legal-political system, the overcoming of its anthropocentric concept, the re-reading of dignity and the new ownership of rights and the emergence of the Sustainable State. The new constitutional pact must go beyond the limitation of state power that benefits only the human person, conferring dignity on the entire ecosystem. The methodology used was the inductive method, with the techniques of reference, categories, operational concepts, fiching and bibliographical research.

Zooarchaeological perspectives in the framework of the Anthropocene: Contributions to ecological, environmental and conservation studies from South America

This special volume considers major recent changes in southern South American animal communities. Eleven papers consider megafauna, pinnipeds, marine mammals, small terrestrial mammals and birds and are grouped under four sub-headings: (1) Isotopic insights into guanaco populations; (2) Historical sources and marine ecosystem change; (3) Changes in small mammal communities and human impacts; and (4) megafaunal extinction, domestication, avifauna and recent interactions with humans. Although some of these contributions include changes that occurred earlier in the Holocene, many highlight a current decrease in the taxonomic diversity of communities and ecosystems in different environments, which are likely to have been caused by modern human activities. The Anthropocene concept is seen as providing a useful framework for understanding and mitigation of such adverse human impacts.

La ilustración de la filosofía china para la construcción de la civilización ecológica contemporánea

Abstract: Chinese philosophy is a philosophy of ecology. The basic problem of Chinese philosophy is the relationship between heaven and man, that is, the relationship between nature and man. This is evident in the main schools of Chinese philosophy, such as Confucianism and Taoism. A correct understanding and evaluation of Chinese ecological philosophy has important practical significance for us to reflect on the ecological imbalance and environmental deterioration caused by the industrial civilization, created under the guidance of the mechanical concept of nature and anthropocentrism, and to re-examine the way of human existence, development, thinking and values. This paper aims to explore the elements of eco-philosophy in Chinese philosophy and analyze its influence on the concept, value and practice of ecological civilization.

Faulkner’s Renewal of the Figure of the Grizzly Bear in the American West: From Ancestor to Political Symbol

The role of the grizzly bear in many Native American tribes has had a tremendous cultural, spiritual and ecological significance, which was objected by the colonisers’ anthropocentric conception of wildlife as an instrumental value to humans. Literature has been one of the main sources to find traces of this Native American conception of the grizzly bear as deity as well as the colonists’ perspective of the nonhuman animal as threat to be tamed. In this article, I will analyse some folk tales and William Faulkner’s “The Bear” (1942) in order to demonstrate the existence of this conception of the grizzly bear in the American West, as well as the importance of literature for its perpetuation.

SEMANTIC CHARACTERISTICS OF PROVERBS OF THE KAZAKH LANGUAGE WITH THE BASIC LEXEME “MAN”

Proverbs are interesting not only as linguistic units, but also as a means of knowing the national character of the people, penetrating into the system of its values, as a repository of various cultural information. Proverbs contain a set of opinions developed by the people as a linguocultural community, they are one of the most important linguistic units that reflect ethnic characteristics, the philosophy of the people. In proverbs about a person, his main features are presented – thinking, speaking, diligence or laziness, social status, his attitude towards people, towards the surrounding nature, etc. The article deals with the proverbs of the Kazakh language with the basic concept of a man. Their semantic features are revealed on the basis of the concept of anthropocentrism, it is described that they express both national and universal features. In the proverbs of the Kazakh language, the concept of a man is conveyed by the words адам, кісі, жан, біреу, тұлға, as well as other lexical units denoting a man. To define the concept of a man in the proverbs of the Kazakh language, the following classification of proverbs was presented: a man – the image of a man, a man – a man, a man – a society, a man – an image of animals, a man – positive and negative qualities of a man, a man – a child of a man, a man – a word of a man. The results of the semantic analysis of proverbs have theoretical and practical significance, therefore they can be used both in general for linguo-theoretical and linguo-contrastive, and for linguodidactic and linguo-methodological purposes. The analysis and description of the semantic properties of proverbs were carried out using such methods as the method of linguistic description, the method of component analysis, the differential semantic method.

Three-century climate variations recovered from Lake Heilongtan in southwest China and potential Anthropogenic evidences

Under increasing influences of human activities on earth surface system, the concept of Anthropocene has been proposed and widely investigated to represent such a human-dominated geological epoch. To acquire further details about the Anthropocene, investigations on high-resolution continuous records are essentially necessary, especially for regions under notable human impacts. Here, a continuous sediment record covering the past three centuries was collected from Lake Heilongtan, a closed basin lake located in the Hengduan Mountains, in southwest China. High-resolution sedimentary proxies were examined to reconstruct past climate and environment changes, including grain size distribution, geochemical element composition, and organic matter content. The results indicated that water levels were relatively higher under generally warm and wet conditions between 1717 and 1800 CE, while a decline in regional moisture after 1800 CE caused serious shrinkage of the lake level. Comparisons with regional paleoclimate records revealed that solar activity played a significant role in promoting climate variations in southwest China. After 1910 CE, the sedimentary proxies revealed an out-of-phase with regional climate changes, especially the progressive increase after 1950 CE. With the expansion of regional population, the intensified human activities have possibly affected the catchment erosion and sedimentation processes, accounting for the deviation from natural climate changes. Accordingly, the reconstructed sedimentation history in Lake Heilongtan experienced a possible transition from natural-driven to human-dominant status during the past three centuries, revealing potential evidence for the Anthropocene in southwest China.

Wordsworth, Ecocriticism, and Natural Education

ABSTRACT This essay argues that Wordsworth reinvents the Enlightenment’s concept of natural education in ways that resonate with theories of ecology in a time of global warming. In book 5 of The Prelude, Wordsworth launches a scathing satire against the modern educator, whose scheme of natural education resembles rationalist interpretations of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Wordsworth questions the naturalism of Enlightenment educational theory, arguing that modern education is rooted in a desire to control the course of both nature and human development. He reimagines natural education as a process that entails unpredictable and irreversible change. For Wordsworth, natural education is not a highway that leads directly towards a better future but is instead a broken and winding passage from one stage of life to another. Ecocritical scholars have embraced Wordsworth’s attack on rationalistic, anthropocentric conceptions of nature, but his ecological sensibility continues to be defined in relation to an outdated vision of pastoral renewal. This essay maintains that the sense of discontinuity that characterizes Wordsworth’s lyric narration of natural education approaches much more closely to twenty-first-century experiences of ecological chaos, estrangement, and loss.

ASSOCIATIVE PLUME OF CULTURAL ARTIFACTS

The article focuses on the analysis of the associative perception of proper names. The purpose of the article is to analyze the associative plume of proper names that mark the naming of cultural artifacts of the onymic landscape. Onyms belonging to pop culture were chosen as the object of research, and their associative plume was the subject. The material of the research was 97 reactions of 30 respondents, which were submitted to three stimuli: Mona Lisa, Star Wars, Eurovision. The research methodology consists of conducting a free associative experiment with selected onyms-stimuli and analyzing the results of the experiment using the semantic gestalt of the associative field method. Reactions to the stimulus are naturally grouped around certain fragments of the conceptual picture of the world, which are reflected in this associative gestalt. Each stimulus formed a two-fold core of a semantic associative gestalt. The isomorphism of the core structure of associative gestalts does not deprive them of their originality, which is manifested in the potential of the dominant gestalt, which we associate with the fact that each cultural artifact has a multi-component structure that cannot be reflected only in a single associative plane. The distribution of onymic reactions also has a certain isomorphism: in all associative fields, anthroponymic reactions that nominate both real and virtual denotates prevail, which can be interpreted as a manifestation of the culture of participation, because in the picture of the world, the main initiator and participant of events is a person. In this way, the concept of anthropocentrism is actualized in modern Ukrainian society, which at the same time realizes and identifies itself through the prism of cultural artifacts, proper names, and a complex of memes. The respondents of the experiment were the representatives of the new generation, and their cultural picture of the world and its onymic part demonstrate commitment to tradition and, at the same time, the realization of their new understanding. All this allows us to assert that with the help of a free associative experiment it is possible to record cultural evolutionary progress.

Historians of Ideas Rush in Where Stratigraphers Fear to Tread.

Humanist and scientific analyses of the Anthropocene concept may be distinctive as a coinvestigation across disciplinary borders. While scientists only in 2023 hypothesized the Anthropocene's inception in the 1950s (as measured by atomic residue), humanists have for several decades been investigating the concept as a probable reality and argue for its longer chronology. The six books reviewed here identify the early modern period, especially the eighteenth century, as a convincing moment of transition, indicating a longer era of relevant anthropogenic activity. This periodization has important implications for addressing the ongoing environmental crisis, which will require both humanist and scientific knowledge.

Veganism’s Anti-Anthropocentric Capacity. A Critical Analysis of the Advocacy Discourse of Three Prominent Vegan Organisations

Anthropocentrism has been identified as a root cause of nonhuman animal and intrahuman oppressions and the environmental crisis. Veganism has been celebrated as a philosophy and practice capable of undermining anthropocentrism, yet the anti-anthropocentric capacity of vegan advocacy is understudied. The current research provides a critical analysis of the online advocacy discourse of three prominent vegan organisations – The Vegan Society, PETA, and Viva! – elucidating areas of anthropocentric reinforcement and subversion in correspondence to the conceptual characteristics of anthropocentrism: human-centred narcissism and exceptionalism, the perceived human/animal dichotomy, and a corresponding moral hierarchy that exalts particular understandings of the “human” to the detriment of all considered other-than (Calarco 2014). Given the interconnectedness of nonhuman and human oppressions and importance of decentring the anthropocentric conception of the “human”, the intersectional strengths and shortcomings of the organisations’ vegan advocacy is additionally considered, with many areas of needed improvement being highlighted. The article contributes to research on vegan/nonhuman animal rights advocacy and social movement communication, and facilitates the future production of anti-anthropocentric, intersectional, vegan advocacy campaigns.