The Anthropocene condition: evolving through social–ecological transformations

Abstract

Anthropogenic planetary disruptions, from climate change to biodiversity loss, are unprecedented challenges for human societies. Some societies, social groups, cultural practices, technologies and institutions are already disintegrating or disappearing as a result. However, this coupling of socially produced environmental challenges with disruptive social changes—the Anthropocene condition—is not new. From food-producing hunter–gatherers, to farmers, to urban industrial food systems, the current planetary entanglement has its roots in millennia of evolving and accumulating sociocultural capabilities for shaping the cultured environments that our societies have always lived in (sociocultural niche construction). When these transformative capabilities to shape environments are coupled with sociocultural adaptations enabling societies to more effectively shape and live in transformed environments, the social–ecological scales and intensities of these transformations can accelerate through a positive feedback loop of ‘runaway sociocultural niche construction’. Efforts to achieve a better future for both people and planet will depend on guiding this runaway evolutionary process towards better outcomes by redirecting Earth's most disruptive force of nature: the power of human aspirations. To guide this unprecedented planetary force, cultural narratives that appeal to human aspirations for a better future will be more effective than narratives of environmental crisis and overstepping natural boundaries. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Evolution and sustainability: gathering the strands for an Anthropocene synthesis’.

Positive feedbacks in deep-time transitions of human populations

“…Thus, we provide additional support for the notion that population, cooperation, and cultural trajectories are structured in a feedback relationship that impacts the evolution of the socio-cultural human niche [12,78,79]. According to models of niche cultural construction, humans of one generation 'build' new environments that are inherited by the following generation, which in turn modify it again (in the same direction) for the next generation [11,52,70,80].…”

Continuities and discontinuities in the cultural evolution of global consciousness

“…It appears oriented to not only expanding human social networks. This was a critical element in the rise of our species to planetary dominance, and may become an important element of our shared future where we learn to craft more sustainable narratives about ourselves [57,58].…”

Evolution of the polycrisis: Anthropocene traps that challenge global sustainability

“…Rather than conclusive, this assessment should be seen as a first step in the development and application of a framework by a group of experts, as well as an invitation for further work and scrutiny. We acknowledge that the risk of traps may in some cases be unavoidable and has been a historical constant [9]. Yet, the global nature of the connected Anthropocene system warrants urgent understanding of these undesirable lock-ins.…”