This influential paper formalises the concept of the Anthropocene, the proposed epoch in which humans and human societies have become a global geophysical force comparable to natural forces that have shaped Earth's history. The authors trace the Anthropocene's origins to around 1800 with the onset of industrialisation and the massive expansion in fossil fuel use, using atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration as a simple tracking indicator, and describe the 'Great Acceleration' since 1950 during which human activity and its consequences for Earth system functioning have intensified dramatically. Now one of the most widely cited papers in climate and environmental science, it provides a foundational scientific frame that much subsequent climate psychology literature builds on or responds to.
The Anthropocene
This influential paper formalises the concept of the Anthropocene, the proposed epoch in which humans and human societies have become a global geophysical force comparable to natural forces that have shaped Earth's history. The authors trace the Anthropocene's origins to around 1800 with the onset of industrialisation and the massive expansion in fossil fuel use, using atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration as a simple tracking indicator, and describe the 'Great Acceleration' since 1950 during which human activity and its consequences for Earth system functioning have intensified dramatically. Now one of the most widely cited papers in climate and environmental science, it provides a foundational scientific frame that much subsequent climate psychology literature builds on or responds to.
Steffen, W.
Crutzen, P. J.
McNeill, J. R.
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Descent in the Time of Climate Change
Climate Trauma: Towards a New Taxonomy of Traumatology
ABSTRACT: The disarmingly innocuous term 'climate change' expresses a psychosocial defense mechanism that prompts us to recoil when we consider the implications of climate science. When viewed honestly through the lens of traumatology, this deepening existential crisis presents an entirely new, unprecedented, and higher-order category of trauma: Climate Trauma. What is unique about this category of trauma is that it is an ever-present, ever-growing threat to the biosphere, one that calls into question our shared identity: what does it mean to be 'human' in the Anthropocene? Because it is superordinate, Climate Trauma is continually triggering all past traumas - personal, cultural, and intergenerational - and will continue to do so until such time as it is acknowledged.
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