Defiant Earth

Clive Hamilton is Professor of Public Ethics at Charles Sturt University in Canberra and author of Requiem for a Species: Why we resist the truth about climate change and Earthmasters: The dawn of the age of climate engineering.

• Preface: On waking upAcknowledgments1 The Anthropocene RuptureA rupture in Earth historyVolition in natureEarth System scienceScientific misinterpretationsThe ecomodernist glossAn epoch by any other name2 A New AnthropocentrismTo doubt everythingAnthropocentrism reduxThe antinomy of the AnthropoceneThe new anthropocentrismThe world-making creatureThe new anthropocentrism versus ecomodernism In praise of technology3 Friends and AdversariesGrand narratives are dead, until nowAfter post-humanismThe freak of natureThe ontological wrong turnRecovering the cosmological sense?4 A Planetary History?The significance of humansDoes history have a meaning?An Enlightenment fable‘Politics is fate’5 The Rise and Fall of the Super-agentFreedom is woven into nature-as-a-wholeResponsibility is not enoughLiving without UtopiaNotesIndex

"Defiant Earth is a major contribution to a topic that is of vital if not pre-eminent importance today. The book is highly original in its synthesis of the scientific, philosophical and religious issues raised by the coming of the 'Anthropocene.' Hamilton mines each of these traditions for ways to make sense of the new and frightening epoch that is upon us." - Adrian Wilding, University of Jena, Germany"For those entertaining the idea that we should just rocket away from an overheated planet to some new world, or perhaps fill the atmosphere with sulphur to block out the sun, here's a remarkably powerful accounting of our actual responsibility--past, present, and future." - Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature"Earth system scientists' idea of the Anthropocene has given rise to two seemingly rival camps of thought in the humanities: there are those who want to fold the idea back into new histories of global capital, and those who have used the debate to move towards a new philosophical anthropology. Clive Hamilton has been an original, important, and distinctive voice in this debate. Defiant Earth goes a long way towards bridging the distance between these rival camps while generating insights of its own into the meanings of being human in an age of planetary climate change. An essential reading for our times." - Dipesh Chakrabarty, University of Chicago"Drawing his observations from the humanities as much as the sciences, Hamilton offers a robust view of the current state of play; not a warning – we’re past that stage – but an attempt at understanding." - Geographical Magazine“The book is a deeply philosophical and intensively argumentative plea for all of us to reconcile ourselves with the looming planetary crisis that is now on our doorstep. It is not only beautifully written, but passionately argued … All books should aim for this stimulating provocation of thought, but it seems a rare accomplishment that few manage to achieve.”-ACUNS, Academic Council on the United Nations System