The Anthropocene Ironies and Christian Ethics: Forging a New Sphere of Moral Responsibility

Since life has affected Earth for eons, the Anthropocene is distinguished by moral agency’s planetary influence.  Accordingly, insofar as the Anthropocene’s intensification undermines that agency, the Anthropocene becomes less unique.  I argue that this irony discloses a moral duty to preserve the Holocene.  However, the Anthropocene is ironic and not simply immoral because not all human activity disturbing the Holocene is immoral.  Instead, much of that activity is necessary to fulfill other moral duties.  I contend this moral tension reflects a link between value and disvalue that is endemic to life.  Yet because not all human activity disturbing the Holocene is due to such bivalence, the Anthropocene also manifests immorality.  Indeed, the Anthropocene is ironic rather than tragic because its disvalue is suffused with immorality.  Still, given that the Anthropocene is bivalent, this tension between moral duties cannot be entirely resolved and thus morality mandates living responsibly amidst it.