What Future for the Earth?

Noel Castree is Professor of Geography at the University of Manchester, UK. He is author of Making Sense of Nature (Routledge, 2013). His many writings about the Anthropocene have appeared in the journals Nature Climate Change, Ambio, The Anthropocene Review, South Atlantic Quarterly, Environmental Humanities and Dialogues in Climate Change. He’s previously worked at the universities of Liverpool and Wollongong, as well the University of Technology Sydney, where he’s an honorary professorial fellow.

• Chapter 1: Introduction: Who gets to speak for people and planet? PART 1: MAKING REPRESENTATIONS: THE WHO, WHY AND HOW OF SPEAKING FOR PLANET AND PEOPLE Chapter 2: If the Earth could speak: Geoscientific representations of a fast-changing planet Chapter 3: (Mis)trust in geoscience: understanding belief and scepticism in today’s age of dissent Chapter 4: Beyond geoscience: the ‘social heart’ of global environmental change Chapter 5: Framing the social heart of planetary change PART 2: HOW TO TACKLE SOME BIG QUESTIONS I Chapter 6: The war of the wor(l)ds: what’s the right name for the post-Holocene epoch? Chapter 7: The age of which humans? Anatomising the ‘human condition’ in a (more than) capitalist world Chapter 8: Where on Earth do we live? Imagining the planet otherwise Chapter 9: ‘Five minutes past midnight’: Are we living in the end times? PART 3: HOW TO TACKLE SOME BIG QUESTIONS II Chapter 10: Earth 2.o: do we now live on an unnatural planet, and in what ways does it matter? Chapter 11: Geography unbound: how to think, feel and act at multiple spatial scales? Chapter 12: Telescoping time: can we escape the ‘tyranny of immediacy’? Chapter 13: Speaking-up for the non-human, now and tomorrow: can social values really be ‘greened’ CONCLUSION Chapter 14: So then, what future for the Earth?

"Castree brings together bold readings across disciplines in this provocative and necessary book on nature, humanity, and the contested futures of the Anthropocene."Erle Ellis, Professor, Geography & Environmental Systems, University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) "With verve and analytical clarity, Noel Castree frames the Anthropocene for action. His exploration of potential political, ethical, and socio-economic responses rests on a deep understanding of Earth System science and geology. The clarity of Castree’s analysis is exactly what’s needed as we grapple with the Anthropocene, not as a vague synonym for environmental impact but as a distinctive, altered reality requiring immediate response." Julia Adeney Thomas, Professor, Department of History, University of Notre Dame"Castree has long been an invaluable guide to the complex social questions raised by the Earth’s transformation. In this important book he explores those questions with insight and urgency."Bronislaw Szerszynski, Emeritus Professor of Sociology, Lancaster University