The Anthropocene: The Politics of a Changing Environment

In my first post, I spoke about the Paris Conference as the inspiration behind my focus on the relationship between politics and the environment. So when the debate surrounding President Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Agreement re-emerged on my BBC News app last week, it seemed too important to ignore. In June, Trump  cited the threat to sovereignty, undermining of the economy and being taken advantage of as reasons to pull out. To me, Trump is portraying the Paris Agreement as an enemy attacking America, and by withdrawing he can achieve an easy ‘win’. President Trump’s famous words from that speech, “I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris” have stuck with me and I offer you US Astronaut Scott Kelly’s tweet in response. Withdrawing from the #ParisAgreement will be devastating to our planet. Paris and Pittsburgh share the same environment after all. pic.twitter.com/QNO5vHtmEF — Scott Kelly (@StationCDRKelly) June 1, 2017 Over the co...

It was the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP21) that initially directed my attention to the politics of our environment. The notion that 195 countries, so often at odds or even at war with each other, could possibly sit down and come to an agreement that benefits perhaps not themselves but the planet as a whole, seemed, well…absurd. Add to this the complex histories of development that have unfairly advantaged certain countries over others and the divides deepen. However, central to all the discussions, debates and politics was the overriding necessity of an agreement that could help knock the Earth from its current trajectory. It was this necessity, one which transcended political borders, that centred my attention on the global politics of environmental change.   In recent years it has been suggested that humankind has become a major geophysical force, influencing the global climate and pushing our environment towards a point from which it may not recover; l...