The Anthropocene questions the very foundation of environmental law. Many legal scholars have proposed directions on how environmental law should be transformed to respond to complex challenges in the new geological epoch. However, they tend to avoid questions about which social actors should be regarded as the agents of change to bring about such a transformation. This article addresses the question of agency by considering the experience of Southeast Asia. By employing a comparative perspective, this article reveals that environmental movements are a major agent of change in the Anthropocene because they have been playing a pivotal role in progressing environmental law in the region. However, despite their importance in the region, environmental movements have persistently been confronted by intimidation, repression and even murder.
| INTRODUCTIONThe Earth is entering a new geological epoch, known as the Anthropocene, referring to the age of humankind in which humans have changed the planet significantly. 1 The simplest way to understand the Anthropocene is in terms of its scale and system. 2 The changes brought about by the human species do not just materialize at the national or global level but on a planetary scale, affecting the Earth system, including the geological composition of the Earth, climatic patterns, the Earth surface and also the oceans. 3 Following Hamilton and others, the Anthropocene here refers to 'an even wider notion of human impact on the planet, including transformations of the landscape, urbanisation, species extinctions, resource extraction and waste dumping, as well as disruption to natural processes such as the nitrogen cycle'. 4 The concept of the Anthropocene has been introduced by scientists to capture the complexity of our contemporary environmental problems, which occur on a planetary scale. According to Thomas and colleagues, the Anthropocene needs to be understood from a multidisciplinary perspective: While Earth system scientists may have expertise on the natural dimension of the Anthropocene, they are illequipped to explain its social dimensions. 5 It is up to social scientists, including legal scholars, to explain the social dimensions of this planetary issue. Thus, the Anthropocene should be seen as an invitation to bring together the natural sciences and social sciences. 6 This article is 1 The word 'Anthropocene' itself was popularized by Paul Crutzen, a Nobel Prize-winning atmospheric chemist, during a meeting of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Program in Mexico. During this meeting, he felt upset because geologists kept calling the geological epoch in the twenty-first century the 'Holocene', referring to the epoch of the Earth that started around 11,000 years ago. He then told the audience that we were no longer living in the Holocene but in a new epoch called the Anthropocene.