Anthony Burke | Thriving in the Anthropocene

There are great opportunities to survive and indeed thrive, if we are willing to honour our myriad connections to other lives in other places.

Anthony Burke

Our increasing intrusion into the natural world is creating strange new risks and endangering the future of all life. The rapid loss of the Earth’s biodiversity and animal abundance is one of the key markers of the Anthropocene—a crisis so grave that biologists now say that the sixth mass extinction of species is underway. This notion of the Anthropocene seems frightening and overwhelming, and indeed it is an epoch of much greater human vulnerability as well as human power. So how do we find a sense of agency and hope in these challenging times? How can we think about not just surviving, but thriving in the Anthropocene?
 

Anthony Burke is Professor of Environmental Politics and International Relations at UNSW Canberra. Anthony is a leading scholar in global environmental governance and law, international security studies, and international ethics. His current research interests include green political theory, cosmopolitanism and climate change. Anthony is co-lead of the UNSW Grand Challenge on Thriving in the Anthropocene.
 

A UNSW Centre for Ideas and Grand Challenges program collaboration.

Illustrations designed by Juune Lee. Filmed and edited by Paper Moose. Footage filmed at the EPICentre, a UNSW research centre located at the Art & Design campus.