The Anthropocene: A Special Issue
David R. Butler
Abstract
This special issue of the Annals of the American Association of Geographers is devoted to the Anthropocene, the period of unprecedented human impacts on Earth’s environmental systems. The articles contained in this special issue illustrate that geographers have a diverse perspective on what the Anthropocene is and represents. The articles also show that geographers do not feel it necessary to identify only one starting point for the temporal onset of the Anthropocene. Several starting points are suggested, and some authors support the concept of a time-transgressive Anthropocene. Articles in this issue are organized into six sections, but many of them transcend easy categorization and could easily have fit into two or even three different sections. Geographers embrace the concept of the Anthropocene while defining it and studying it in a variety of ways that clearly show the breadth and diversity of the discipline.