Description: Altered Earth aims to get the Anthropocene right in three senses. With essays by leading scientists, it highlights the growing consensus that our planet entered a dangerous new state in the mid-twentieth century. Second, it gets the Anthropocene right in human terms, bringing together a range of leading authors to explore, in fiction and non-fiction, our deep past, global conquest, inequality, nuclear disasters, and space travel. Finally, this landmark collection presents what hope might look like in this seemingly hopeless situation, proposing new political forms and mutualistic cities. 'Right' in this book means being as accurate as possible in describing the physical phenomenon of the Anthropocene; as balanced as possible in weighing the complex human developments, some willed and some unintended, that led to this predicament; and as just as possible in envisioning potential futures.
Brief description: Julia Adeney Thomas is an intellectual historian of Japan and the Anthropocene, and Associate Professor of History at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana.
Review Quotes: 'We all remember hearing the term the 'Anthropocene' for the first time, and the way it suddenly catalyzed fresh conversation between human and physical scientists. Julia Adeney Thomas and her distinguished colleagues rightly call us all on matters of accuracy as well as analysis. The stakes are too high not to get the Anthropocene right: we have a better chance of doing so in the light of this landmark book.' Alison Bashford, Laureate Centre for History & Population, UNSW, Sydney