Defiant Earth - The Fate of Humans in the Anthropocene - Grand Format

Humans have become so powerful that we have disrupted the functioning of the Earth System as a whole, bringing on a new geological epoch — the Anthropocene — in which the serene and clement conditions that allowed civilization to flourish are disappearing. We quail before "the wakened giant." What does it mean to have arrived at this point, where human history and Earth history collide ? For Clive Hamilton, the Anthropocene demands that we rethink everything.
The modern belief in the free, reflexive being making its own future by taking control of its environment is now impossible because we have rendered the Earth more unpredictable and less controllable, a disobedient planet. At the same time, all attempts by progressives to cut humans down to size by denouncing anthropocentrism come up against the insurmountable fact that human beings now possess enough power to change the Earth's course.
We must face the fact that humans are at the center of the world, even if we must give up the idea that we can control the planet. These truths call for a new kind of anthropocentrism, a philosophy by which we might use our power responsibly and find a way to live on a defiant Earth.