Atmospheric Sciences in the Anthropocene

University of Strasbourg, France

General Description

At the beginning of the 21st century atmospheric scientists coined the term ‘Anthropocene’ to describe a new geological epoch of the Earth, characterised by an increasing human influence on the global environment. Within a few decades, they argued, human beings had brought about changes to the Earth of magnitudes that usually have taken place over thousands, or millions, of years. Anthropogenic climate change figured prominently among these changes. Given that human beings have already intervened in the Earth system, it may at some point be necessary, they argued, to take deliberate corrective action and do “large-scale geo-engineering projects” and “optimize” climate.

The course will critically discuss the notion of Anthropocene and the idea of geo-engineering, or climate engineering, from both a historical and contemporary perspective. The historical part of the course explores the emergence of the environmental sciences and environmentalism during the Cold War, examines the links between military research and the environmental sciences, and traces the historical development of the on-going debate about climate change. The main part of the course will focus on recent debates about climate engineering, asking questions like: Who advocates technological solutions to the current climate crisis? Which institutions support, justify and finance this kind of research? What are the alternatives to technological fixes? Are there different ways to relate to the Earth than by large-scale technological intervention?