The Anthropocene

In the “Age of Crises” (SIPRI Report 2022), it looks like one crisis more than any other will have long-term consequences: climate catastrophe. On the threshold of the 21st century, a geochronological epoch was named after the planetary influence of a particularly young animal species, humans: The “Anthropocene” has replaced the Holocene. The current perception of the climate catastrophe as an existential crisis is only strengthened by the discrepancy between the scientific consensus and the manifest political unwillingness to find structural ways out of the predicament. Perhaps it is precisely this awareness of the crisis that is leading to intensified activism on the one hand, but on the other hand is causing fundamental questions about the human condition to be asked anew. 

The urgency of the climate catastrophe is taken for granted in the lecture series. Many citizens and students in particular are aware of the existential, epistemological and political problems of the climate catastrophe and are committed to activism and engagement against it. This event, on the other hand, emphasises the narrativity of the Anthropocene and climate change.  It aims to offer a foundation of meaning beyond apocalyptic predictions and to emphasise the plurality of narratives – scientific, historical, political, literary and artistic.