CUSP LECTURE - Entering the Philanthropocene: Planetary Sciences in the Age of Rich Men

Thomas Turnbull, Research Scholar at Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin and previously visiting Scholar at the Center for Anthropocene History  at KTH, will be in Stockholm in November for our upcoming workshop Futures Beyond Transition: Perspectives from the Energy Humanities .

While here he will also be giving the lecture Entering the Philanthropocene: Planetary Sciences in the Age of Rich Men  at the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study (SCAS).

LECTURE ABSTRACT:
What does it mean that Earth’s richest men have begun to turn their benificent gaze toward the management of the planet’s critical ecosystemic pressure points? Are their actions an act of altruistic largesse, an attempt to delimit distinct and self-serving pathways to our collective survival – or, are they simply involving themselves in yet another tax avoidance scheme? This talk will introduce yet another anthro-geological neologism, the Philanthropocene, an age in which it is clearly the mores, appetites, and intentions of the planet’s richest men that are recognised as not only the most damaging for the environment but also the most assertive and agentic in attempts at planetary rectification and modification.

Critically Urgent Societal Problems (CUSP) is an arena for addressing big societal challenges of our time: social, political, cultural, economic, environmental, and/or medical. In an effort to give voice to urgent societal problems, Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study (SCAS) invites academics, policy-makers, artists, and other actors to publicly address such global concerns.

This event is a collaboration between SCAS and the Department of History of Science and Ideas, Uppsala University.