The African Anthropocene
Introduction
The whole world is in the anthropogenic age where human activities have changed the globe in terms of modification of the landscapes. The age of humanity which rooted back millions and billions of years has brought a planetary transition which has never happened before. Humans have brought massive changes through various activities such as nuclear testing, radioactive deposits and more. In understanding the root cause of Anthropocene crisis, the author asserts that during the period of colonialism and industrialization, Africa extracted gold and uranium and exported them to Europe and North America, and the waste materials from the power plant during the extraction have polluted the environment for many years. Since this period, Africa became the source of gold and uranium which are distributed to the planet. However, despite the economic benefit, the author asserts that Africa has become a ‘hollow land’ and the increase in extraction has increased the air pollution. Human activities have contributed to a great impact on the Earth’s geology since the industrial revolution, and in order to address the Anthropocene concepts and its effect on our environment and health, both natural and social science should study the natural and human history and more important, allow African states have an international autonomy in controlling their natural resources.
In analyzing the ‘African Anthropocene’, the author argue that the world shifted to an new era characterized by Anthropocene or in other words, the new era is dominated by humans where human activities have changed both physical and natural environment (Hecht, 1). There is a big difference between the Holocene epoch and the Anthropocene epoch in that the former was characterized by a conducive physical and nature environment but the latter is characterized by great extinction, prevalence of artificial organic molecules and disruption of natural processes. The author provides a comprehensive understanding of the root cause of Anthropocene by stating that gold and uranium were used as a mean of exchange during the industrial expansion (Hecht, 1). During 20th century, South Africa extracted larger quantities of minerals and gold and these human activities welcomed a large number of migrants who extracted gold. The extraction created poorly ventilated stopes and many people died due to rock bursts. The human activities reshaped the topography on that during the extraction, rock residues were dumped and this led to pollution problems. The Anthropocene crisis continues to increase in that the efforts of botanists to control the dumps to avoid erosion was underfunded. The problems of pollution increases since the industries pollute the environment knowingly and finally, scientists lack resources and funds to control the pollution (Hecht, 1). The big problem that has been contributed by the human activities is ‘hollow land’ or in other words the extraction of minerals has created a stope where water gets in and reacts with pyrite to form acidified water which mixes with heavy metals. The water rises onto the surface and residents use the water for daily purposes. The burning of coal has also led to air pollution since during the process carbon; sulphur dioxide and more are released in the atmosphere. This has led to devastating consequences such as illnesses and premature deaths especially in low-and middle-income region (Hecht, 1).
In general view of the Anthropocene crisis, Anthropocene crisis started during the industrial revolution and in trying to address these matters, the social sciences and humanities should understand humans as telluric forces and how human activities have contributed to global environmental shifts (Hamilton, 32). The importance of focusing on these two issues is that in considering humans and their involvement in changing the environment is that there is evidence of emission of greenhouse gases, changes in solar activity and more. The point is that the natural and human histories are one and the bond that combines them is the humans’ telluric force. In discussing matters that relate to culture and history, economy, politics and more, humanities and social sciences need to study techno-natural orders. In Anthropocene, it is important to understand that the new industrial order led to connection of humankind and earth and the power of humans have changed the state of things (Hamilton, 36). History is characterized by an endless struggle of man against nature. Note that the increased problem of environmental damage have been influenced by natural and social sciences where naturals sciences are associated with steady laws while social sciences offers humans with freedom to any natural determination (Hamilton, 44). Both understand the world from different dimension and that is why it is important to consider both human and earth history in discussing the Anthropocene concepts since they are deeply interconnected. Apart from focusing on humans and the telluric force in understanding the Anthropocene concepts, the authors state that it is also important to include natural studies which help understand the global environment shifts shown by the biodiversity loss, hotter climate, and ocean acidification among other natural evidences (Hamilton, 48). The author says that social scientists have focused on ‘Capitalocene’ which only addresses things from social, cultural and political perspective and ignores historical concepts. Even though social science try to connected social and nature thing, they lack knowledge that is needed in understanding things such as radioactive particles, economical activities, molecular composition, and much more. Thus, the point is social science and natural science should study the Anthropocene concepts and more on planetary transformation (Hecht, 1).
On imperialism and racism, Magdoff & Williams assert that social-ecological crisis is contributed by capitalism. First, it is important to note that social-ecological crisis occurs when there overpopulation, human activities toward destructiveness and poor policy choices (Magdoff & Chris, 49). On overpopulation, a nation may lack enough land for all people and so they end up using Earth’s resources and their activities not only cause resource depletion but they also contribute to environmental pollution. Due to overpopulation, there is unequal distribution of resources and this means that 10% of wealth people in a nation will use 60% of natural resources and the end result is environmental pollution (Magdoff & Chris, 52). In trying to solve these underlying causes of social-ecological crisis, some people say that the root cause is on the ‘growth problem’ where neoprimitivists argue that all people should live a simpler life characterized by hunting and gathering while ‘green capitalism’ argue that people should consumer ‘green stuff’ in order to stop polluting the environment (Magdoff & Chris, 49). However, all these solution cannot solve the problem unless the real cause of the problem which is the capitalist system is addressed. Capitalism, which is the act of owning a property and using things such as infrastructure and natural resources to produce goods and in turn, create normal as well as economic profit, leads to imperialism (Magdoff & Chris, 51). The authors assert that capitalism has contributed to imperialism where in 21st century, nation-states or rather capitalists use political and economic power to establish a geopolitical interest, to exploit resources, to use low-cost of production and to produce goods and services with an aim of creating national profit. Capitalism is the root cause of social-ecological problems in that first, the main goal of capitalism is to maximize profit and this is achieved through human interaction with the natural environment such as oil drilling, extraction of natural resources, food production and so on. These human activities cause disturbances in that there are unlimited resources, and environmental and social concern in controlling the pollution is minimal (Hecht, 1). The capitalist economy has many ‘externalities’ simply because the method of production and energy are needed and the more tools and technology needed the more damage to the natural world occur. Given that capitalism focus on profit, it increases income distribution and gender inequality between wealth and poor and people of different races. For example in U.S, the rate of white ownerships is 72% while Africans Americans owns 42% (Magdoff & Chris, 72). The root cause of inequality is not technological change or lack of education but rather it is rooted from power where capitalism focuses on profit and growth while poor lack resources.
Hucht relates the Anthropocene crisis with imperialism and racism in that during the industrial capitalism, Europe and North America were interested with industrial expansion and revenue maximization and for this reason, they increased in resources productivity. In other words, it focused on natural resources on the production system in the western world (Hecht, 1). The western economic system has contributed in environmental destruction in that by using economic and military power to derive natural resources, it uses the environment that it exist in as a place for economic expansion. Due to the overpopulation and limited natural resources in the western world, they exploited the natural resources from Africa and the end results were environmental disaster such as water and air pollution and climate change (Hecht, 1). Despite the fact that that there is a dramatic growth of economy in western world, nations such as Africa continue to lag behind and suffer from illness and premature death due to environmental pollution that occurred during extraction of natural resources The author also relates the imperialism with racism in that during the industrial capitalism, U.S was interested with industrial expansion and undervalued the Africans or the people of color thereby creating racial tension. Capitalism created social injustice and heavy burdens to Africans and this nation remain underdeveloped where as U.S is a developed nation (Hecht, 1).
Conclusion
The planet is in a new geological epoch where human activities have interfered with the Earth’s geology causing environmental changes including climate change. During the industrial capitalism, nations such Europe and U.S extracted natural resources from Africa. Whereas Africa suffered from huge devastating effects, these nations developed economically. Athropocene is characterized by anthropogenic warming, species extinction, prevalence of artificial organic molecules, landscape transformation, resource extraction and disruption of natural processes. These activities have destroyed human and natural world resources where human activities have changed the functioning of the earth. Africa continues to offer developed and developing countries with these resources and the more it exports the resources the more it increases environmental problems such as air pollution which lead to illnesses and premature death. The industrial revolution which was characterized by imperialism and racism is the root cause of environmental degradation in Africa and in addressing the current predicament, natural and social sciences should put concern on human and natural history and provide Africa with internal autonomy that was overwhelmed by capitalism dependence.
Work cited
Hecht Gabrielle. The African Athropocene. 2018. Retrieved from: https://mronline.org/2018/02/08/the-african-anthropocene/
Hamilton Clive, Bonneuil Christophe & Gemenne Francois. The Anthropocene and the Global
Environmental Crisis: Rethinking Modernity in a New Epoch. Routledge, 2015
Magdoff, Fred, and Chris Williams. Creating an Ecological Society: Toward a Revolutionary
Transformation. New York: Monthly Review Press, 2017. Print.
