Guest : Owen Gaffney, IGBP October 21 2012

The Anthropocene is a major concept within the Earth systems science community, where it originated, and has of late captured the imagination of the environmental movement and even begun to influence thinking on global governance issues. It holds that humanity since the dawn of the Industrial Era has become a geophysical force, essentially hijacking the otherwise stable environmental heritage of the Holocene, and bringing Earth history into a new epoch dominated by the ecologically misguided activities of man.

The concept of the Anthropocene loomed large over two major environmental events this year: the Planet Under Pressure scientific conference in London, and the Rio +20 sustainability summit in Rio de Janeiro. This Sunday, Owen Gaffney from the International Geosphere Biosphere Programme joins Think Globally Radio to discuss the state of Earth systems science and the situation surrounding global governance for sustainability in the aftermath of the Rio +20 summit.

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