anthropocene

Thus, we gave name to a new geological era. Shortly after, Crutzen published several articles developing this idea, followed by a study by several scientists and historians. What is realized at that time is that the influence of human activity on the earth systems is so great that it is modifying them on a planetary scale, and it comes to be considered as a global geological force.
The name chosen to define this new era soon caused controversy since, by referring to humans and their activities as a homogeneous whole, the Anthropocene functions as a universal discourse that dilutes responsibilities. In this way, it blocks attention to the concrete causes, which are not the "human" in general but a socioeconomic system that is not sustainable.

For this reason, alternative names have been proposed, such as Capitalocene, which focuses on the system and excessive productivity, and on human actions traversed by colonialism, globalization, racism and patriarchy. What is clear is that human action has caused a huge impact on the territory, so much so that we have already surpassed several "planetary boundaries", biophysical processes limits that regulate the stability of the Earth system. We have entered a state of Crisis and Emergency and we are moving towards an era of still unpredictable characteristics. [3]
This situation has popularized a mentality of Apocalypse and Game Over: there is nothing to do, the tolerable life for people on Earth has come to an end and we can only wait for some technological innovation to appear to fix it. [4]
In 2017 the Contemporary Cultural Center from Barcelona (CCCB) held the exhibition After the End of the World, which based its title on the idea that "from the contemporary Western paradigm it is easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism". [5]
Neoliberalism and green capitalism have created slogans that invisible, once again, and produce immobility as "Fight against global warming", "Save the planet" or "Stop Climate Change", as if they were tangible things to fight against.

We cannot "fight" against warming, but we can fight against a socio-economic model based on unlimited growth and overexploitation that only favours a minority.
We cannot "slow down" the climate but we can "slow down" production.
We cannot "Save the planet" as if it was something vulnerable that needs to be saved and when we are the main threat. The Planet was already here millions of years before us and will continue to be, transforming and evolving itself. The only ones that need to be "saved" are us, from ourselves.

We can rethink our relationship with the world and its multiple forms of life. We can redefine and dilute the boundaries between nature and culture that make us live impermeabilized from the others.
According to Morton, the concept of nature is an anthropocentric prism that leads to the separation between the natural and artificial worlds, which is why he defends a conception of ecology without such separation, an "ecology without nature". [6]
Arrived at this point there is no coming back, things won’t be as they were before, so it is time to think together which situation we have and which one we want. It is time to escape from paradigms which have led us to double-death [7] and to positions of collapse and immobility.

It is no game over, and we have no techno fix, no techno solution.
Let’s undo the threads of double death to heal again
Let’s think together new ways of living and dying well in more that human worlds.
Let’s ask together with Anna Tsing:

February 2000. Cuernavaca, Mexico. At an international congress, a group of scientists discuss the intensity of human impact on the planet. In the middle of the debate, Paul Crutzen (Nobel Prize winner in chemistry for his work on the ozone layer) stands up and exclaims, "No! We no longer live in the Holocene, but in the... Anthropocene!" [1]

Despite the prefix “anthropo-,” that is, human, the mess is not a result of our species biology. The most convincing Anthropocene timeline begins not with our species but rather with the advent of modern capitalism, which has directed long-distance destruction of landscapes and ecologies. This timeline, however, makes the “anthropo-” even more of a problem. Imagining the human since the rise of capitalism entangles us with ideas of progress and with the spread of techniques of alienation that turn both humans and other beings into resources. […] This “anthropo-” blocks attention to patchy landscapes, multiple temporalities, and shifting assemblages of humans and nonhumans: the very stuff of collaborative survival.

when your world starts to fall apart?

[1] Paula Bruna, “Arte y Ecología Política. Un Viaje Desde El Modelo Antropocéntrico a Las Realidades De Los No Humanos", (Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, 2020), 47.
[2] Anna Tsing, /The Mushroom at the End of the World. On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins/, (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2012), 19
[3] - Other names proposed are: Gynecene (which links ecocide with feminicide and proposes a feminist environmentalism against patriarchal domination), Plantacioncene (a subcategory of Capitalocene, which highlights the plantation system and corporate colonialism as the structural causes of the geological transformation), Homogenocene (the age of monocultures), Plasticene (the age of plastics)...
Bruna, “Arte y Ecología Política”, 50.
[4] Donna Haraway, /Seguir con el Problema. Generar Parentesco En El Chthuluceno/, (Bilbao: Consomni, 2019), 22-23.
[5] Said by Mark Fisher, originally attributed to Fredric Jameson, /The Seeds of Time/, (New York: Columbia University Press, 1994).
[6] Timothy Morton, /Ecology without nature. Rethinking Environmental Aesthetics/, (Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London, England: Harvard University Press, 2007).
[7] "The killing of the possibility of going on. The killing of the conditions of going on". Donna Haraway: /Story Telling for Earthly Survival, directed by Fabrizio Terranova/, (Belgium: Atelier Graphoui / Coproduction Spectre Productions, CBA – Centre de l’Audiovisuel à Bruxelles, Rien à Voir, Fabbula, Kunstenfestivaldesarts, 2016), DVD.