DEFIANT EARTH

CLIVE HAMILTON

THE FATE OF HUMANS IN THE ANTHROPOCENE

FORGET EVERYTHING YOU KNOW. NATURE IS NO LONGER NATURE. WE HAVE ENTERED A NEW EPOCH.

D E F I A N T E A R T H C L I V E H A M I L T O N

‘A dark, disturbing, provocative and entirely original work, which should be read by everyone genuinely interested in the future of humankind.’

ROBERT MANNE

FASSA, Emeritus Professor of Politics and Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow, La Trobe University

Humans have become so powerful that we have disrupted the functioning of the Earth, bringing on a new geological epoch: the Anthropocene. The stable environmental conditions that allowed civilisation to ﬂourish are disappearing.

What does it mean to have arrived at this point, where human history and Earth history collide? Clive Hamilton argues we need to rethink everything. The modern belief that we are free beings making our own future by taking control of our environment is now indefensible. We have rendered the Earth more unpredictable and less controllable, a disobedient planet. And it’s too late to turn back the geological clock. We must face the fact that humans are at the centre of the world, even if we must give up the idea that we can control the planet. These truths call for a new kind of anthropocentrism, a philosophy by which we might use our power responsibly and ﬁnd a way to live on a deﬁant Earth.

Clive Hamilton

is Professor of Public Ethics at Charles Sturt University. One of Australia’s leading thinkers, he is author of the bestselling

Requiem for a Species

,

The Freedom Paradox

and

Growth Fetish

.

Cover design: Philip Campbell Design Cover image: Stocksy