Nobel Prize winner Paul Jozef Crutzen has popularised the idea of the Anthropocene, a geological age dominated by human activity. For a new multimedia Anthropocene project, Burtynsky visited 20 countries over five years. He argues that “we are on the cusp of becoming (if we are not already) the perpetrator of a… major extinction event”. This is made stark in the unnatural colour of a phosphor tailings pond in Florida: regions where phosphate – essential to industrial agriculture – is mined are typically unable to revert back to their natural state because of pollution. “Let me ask you a question,” asked Burtynsky in a 2016 Facebook post: “when was the last time you talked or heard or even thought about phosphorus?”