Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
  1. Home
  2. Books
  3. Altered Earth
  • Cited by 17
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Online publication date:
March 2022
Print publication year:
2022
Online ISBN:
9781009042369
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009042369
Subjects:
Earth and Environmental Sciences, Environmental History, Environmental Science, History
Information

Book description

Altered Earth aims to get the Anthropocene right in three senses. With essays by leading scientists, it highlights the growing consensus that our planet entered a dangerous new state in the mid-twentieth century. Second, it gets the Anthropocene right in human terms, bringing together a range of leading authors to explore, in fiction and non-fiction, our deep past, global conquest, inequality, nuclear disasters, and space travel. Finally, this landmark collection presents what hope might look like in this seemingly hopeless situation, proposing new political forms and mutualistic cities. 'Right' in this book means being as accurate as possible in describing the physical phenomenon of the Anthropocene; as balanced as possible in weighing the complex human developments, some willed and some unintended, that led to this predicament; and as just as possible in envisioning potential futures.

Reviews

'We all remember hearing the term the 'Anthropocene' for the first time, and the way it suddenly catalyzed fresh conversation between human and physical scientists. Julia Adeney Thomas and her distinguished colleagues rightly call us all on matters of accuracy as well as analysis. The stakes are too high not to get the Anthropocene right: we have a better chance of doing so in the light of this landmark book.'

Alison Bashford - Laureate Centre for History & Population, UNSW, Sydney

'This book is a welcome intervention in the Anthropocene discourse, one that takes the science seriously while also positing the multiplicity of visions, voices, and approaches in the humanities as essential to understanding the profound predicament of ongoing planetary destabilization.'

Meehan Crist - writer in residence in Biological Sciences, Columbia University

'Altered Earth is a dazzling epistemological experiment that weaves creative genres with the natural and human sciences to illuminate our collective planetary predicament. I have rarely encountered a more sensitively choreographed account of the empirical, cultural, socio-political, and moral challenges posed by the Anthropocene. A tour de force that jolts us even as it resists a foreclosed future for planet earth.'

Debjani Ganguly - University of Virginia

'Getting the Anthropocene ‘right’ means taking seriously the diverse voices rippling outwards from the challenge of stratigraphic and Earth System science, to prioritize a planetary perspective. This brilliant volume tells many stories about what this could look like, incorporating work that bridges divisions between the physical sciences, history, politics, and literature, but which does not artificially flatten out their differences. The result is both experimental, and engaging.'

Duncan Kelly - University of Cambridge

‘… understanding what we’ve done is key to preventing the same mistakes being magnified by the damage already done. In adding to such understanding in scientifically rigorous, thoughtful and imaginative ways, this book makes an important contribution.’

Natalie Bennett Source: Yorkshire Bylines

‘… these readable, focused, and engaging essays show that science and the humanities need not be opposed, but can (and must) reinforce each other in understanding and countering the growing Earth System crisis.’

Ian Angus Source: Climate & Capitalism

Refine List

Actions for selected content:

Select all | Deselect all
  • View selected items
  • Export citations
  • Download PDF (zip)
  • Save to Kindle
  • Save to Dropbox
  • Save to Google Drive

Save Search

You can save your searches here and later view and run them again in "My saved searches".

Please provide a title, maximum of 40 characters.
Cancel
×

Contents

Contents
  • Chapter 1 - Science: Old and New Patterns of the Anthropocene
    pp 21-50
      • You have access
    • PDF
    • HTML
    • Export citation
References

Metrics

Altmetric attention score

Full text views

Total number of HTML views: 0
Total number of PDF views: 0 *
Loading metrics...

Book summary page views

Total views: 0 *
Loading metrics...

* Views captured on Cambridge Core between #date#. This data will be updated every 24 hours.

Usage data cannot currently be displayed.