Man the manager of nature has named his age after himself
Anthropocene It sounds both proud and ashamed
Man named as an undifferentiated whole with the power now to create to destroy to preserve and reproduce
But which Man?
The ‘Project Affected Person’ whose land has been flooded, whose forest has been taken and now forced to find wage labor on the edge of a wild highway or in the center of roads of Delhi with Audis of new money rushing by?
(Ghost laughing)
Nature becomes the resource that allows certain economic reproduction to subjugate nature
(Silent following)
Only a few voices could name the age But it is still unnamed Perhaps now is the only time in human history that we are aware that our age’s name is changing that the choices we make collectively will determine what that name means What strange and wondrous rings we have made in the old trees Who will sense these rings and finally disown them? What happens when the dam breaks as old dams will
or the big river dries before
it reaches the ocean?
Plan B-
hook our earth up to life support
The image of the terminal blue planet the beep of its heart in coma monitored by a colorful team of doctor engineer actors who with measured compassion fatalism and pride keep pumping its breath
But when we stop pumping sulfate aerosols into the atmosphere we’ll be hit with a tidal wave of heat
so we’ll just have to keep pumping forever
until the next large volcano or the Snowpiercer
circles the earth
How will plan B play out?
There can be no way to know
and no way to reverse and recapture
what will be released
Computer scenarios suggest
there will be great disruption to the Indian monsoons
plant productivity in Africa and rains in the Amazon
Curiously enough Europe and North America see minimal impact
One can imagine a world where the techno-elites monitors of Frankenearth decide which areas to save and which to sacrifice who is to live and who is to die
For the ones who live by the river this way already is