Assignment the Anthropocene Reviewed

 In simple words, humans and their activities are making a dominating effect, as well as, having a great presence on the functions performed by planet Earth. The natural world and environment are being affected by humans in so many ways. This dominating effect made by humans has entered into a new era, which is referred to as the Anthropocene. This new concept is widely being discussed by academia, as well as, researchers, environmentalists, historians, archaeologists, social scientists, and geologists. The Anthropocene is a concept, which reflects on the relationship between the earth and people living on earth, like how they are interacting. In previous times, different terms were used to show the impact of humans on the environment, but this new term is looking at things on a geological time scale. That’s why, as per the Anthropocene term, the environmental changes happening in the contemporary world are more significant in nature on the earth’s time scale. So, it’s becoming vital to have a look at those significant changes, which are happening in this natural environment (Lewis & Maslin, 2015)

            It is important to understand that there are certain features, which should be kept in mind when the concept of Anthropocene is being discussed. The first key feature is to look at the pervasive and global nature of the change so that changes are analyzed with more details. The other feature of this concept is to look at environmental global change with a variety of facts rather just focusing on climate change, rather looking at elements such as a decline in biodiversity, mixing of species, and resource extraction at a large scale. Moreover, the Anthropocene concept looks at the relationship between earth and humans as two-way communication. These key features are instrumental to see the changes in the activities of humans, and how the earth is reacting to these large scale activities happening on a daily basis. However, it is vital to mention here that the concept of the Anthropocene is still facing various challenges to be accepted by everyone. There are so many aspects and fields associated with this single concept, so it will take time to get everyone on the same page to say that the Anthropocene period has actually started (Malhi, 2017)

            It is vital to understand that any society may not be able to function if it is not having the essence of legal and human rights, which are made in effect by the legal guidelines. So, when it comes to regulating the relationship between the humans and environment, law plays a key role in defining the boundaries of this relationship. This law has been developed by humans, so questions may be raised on its validity, but still, these laws cannot be refused or ignored, because humans are the only ones, who have the capacity to analyze the conditions and situations to make such laws. Kotzé (2014) has tried to reflect on these legal and humans rights in relation to the implications, which can be observed for the environment with regards to making changes to Anthropocene. Kotzé has tried to analyze different implications, which can be understood so that human-environment and human-human relationships can be analyzed with a better perspective in keeping current global changes to earth in context.

            It is evident that Anthropocene is going to throw a lot of challenges for humans, and if humans want to tackle these challenges, then they will have to be more proactive in their stance. The current legal and human rights cannot give answers to all the challenges thrown by Anthropocene. The question is what should be done in this situation. The most important recommendation to deal with this situation for human society is to recognize their force as one unit. The earth community and human family should come together so that a sustainable global society is made, which is based on the elements of peace, justice, humans rights, equity, as well as, nature. The current community should reflect on its behavior and activities as these are going to make an effect on the lives of future generations (Kotzé, 2014)

Module 5 - Environmental Crisis, Collapse, and Renewal

            In this particular study, Preston (2016) has focused on children, and as per his views, the children have been largely affected by various industrial disasters such as the Aberfan disaster. Such disasters have proved deadly for the school children, who had nothing to do with these industrial projects. It is often said that communities may benefit from these disasters, but what about innocent children, who had no intentions to take part in the political and social fabric of the industrial elements. He focused on children, who should not be a victim to these industrial disasters, and if the community is to be blamed for anything, children have no negative part to play in it. In this study, the author has tried to look at school children and industrial disasters to see a trend. To analyze the relationship between school and industrial disasters, the mixed research methodology was used, where different methods were used to collect data such as interviews, official reports, as well as, archival research. A variety of qualitative data was also used in this study so that a valid argument is constructed. So, a comprehensive research methodology was used overall.

            After collecting and analyzing a range of data, it was concluded in the end that the portrayal of pupils and schools as primary victims in several industrial disasters was not the right approach; rather it underplayed the agency of these elements. This kind of representation of facts has also been misleading the role to be performed by young people, not only before the disaster but even after the disaster as well. Moreover, it was found that the culpability of the population in a given disaster also raises questions on portraying the image of victimhood. But this culpability is not proved in various cases, because teachers, pupils, and schools have no two-way communication with such industrial units, where they can define the scope of risk, and what should be done in this regard. It was also concluded after analyzing both the public sector and private sector units that the value of the humans and their lives is not more than the value of production of the industrial units. Both the incidents, the Canvey Factor and Aberfan did happen because the industrial units were trying to save their money. Hence proved that value was not put to the lives of children and community, and children faced the severe consequences of these industrial disasters (Preston, 2014).

            American society has been central to the issues of racial segregation and discrimination, and Hurricane Katrina shed more light on this issue in so many ways. The black people in America have been victims of racial segregation, and they have always struggled for their rights. The civil rights movement did a significant job in regaining some rights for the black community, but then a debate started in the 1980s, giving importance to the concept of the environmental justice movement, which was associated with the inequities of the American society in terms of unfair resource allocation and community health. The focus of the early environmental justice movement was to look at the unfair treatment of low-income and minority communities by the practices adopted by the government and the industry. The basic purpose of the term environmental justice is to secure equal life parameters for everyone so that they can face health and environmental hazards. If any community will be discriminated in this regard, then it will have to fight to get its environmental justice. A key example of this discrimination to poor and minority communities of America was to putting landfills near their areas, whereas they should have been treated equally in this regard if environmental justice would have been followed properly.

            Hurricane Katrina was one of the biggest evidence to show an economic and environmental disparity between the minority and less privileged communities, as compared with the privileged class of the country. It was observed that reporting and alarming situation of Hurricane Katrina was not handled properly, as it might have been done for other areas. It was not the only evidence, rather the slow response and inadequate rescue efforts also showed the negligence of the government in helping the victims of Hurricane Katrina. The environmental inequality was followed in every aspect, and people of the low-income and minority were discriminated in every aspect of their lives. If things would have been made better by following the essence of environmental justice for everyone, then the situation might have been different in the case of Hurricane Katrina (Morse, 2008).

References of the Anthropocene Reviewed

Kotzé, L. J. (2014). Human rights and the environment in the Anthropocene. The Anthropocene Review, 1(3), 252–275.

Lewis, S., & Maslin, M. A. (2015). Defining the Anthropocene. Nature, 519(7542), 171-80.

Malhi, Y. (2017). The Concept of the Anthropocene. Annual Review of Environment and Resources, 42, 77-104.

Morse, R. (2008). Environmental Justice Through the Eye of Hurricane Katrina. Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, Health Policy Institute.

Preston, J. (2014). From Aberfan to the ‘Canvey Factor’: schools, children and industrial disaster. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 1-16.