Thinking about Animals in the Age of the Anthropocene (2016)

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Title Thinking about Animals in the Age of the Anthropocene
Ecocritical Theory and Practice
Editors Morten Tønnessen, Kristin Armstrong Oma, Silver Rattasepp
Contributors Almo Farina, Carlo Brentari, Katharine Dow, Martin Drenthen, Annabelle Dufourcq, Peter Gaitsch, Gisela Kaplan, Eva Meijer, Susan M. Rustick, Bronislaw Szerszynski, Mateusz Tokarski, Sebastjan Vörös, Louise Westling
Publisher Rowman & Littlefield, 2016
ISBN 1498527973, 9781498527972
Length 280 pages
Subjects Literary Criticism › Subjects & Themes › Nature

The term “Anthropocene”, the era of mankind, is increasingly being used as a scientific designation for the current geological epoch. This is because the human species now dominates ecosystems worldwide, and affects nature in a way that rivals natural forces in magnitude and scale. Thinking about Animals in the Age of the Anthropocene presents a dozen chapters that address the role and place of animals in this epoch characterized by anthropogenic (human-made) environmental change. While some chapters describe our impact on the living conditions of animals, others question conventional ideas about human exceptionalism, and stress the complex cognitive and other abilities of animals. The Anthropocene idea forces us to rethink our relation to nature and to animals, and to critically reflect on our own role and place in the world, as a species. Nature is not what it was. Nor are the lives of animals as they used to be before mankind´s rise to global ecological prominence. Can we eventually learn to live with animals, rather than causing extinction and ecological mayhem?