Concepts such as “Earth system”, “planetary boundaries”, and “the Anthropocene” from the last few decades serve as ontological heuristics for the emerging human-Earth relationship and its dire predicament. They have helped expand “the environment” to encompass ever more “environmental objects”, including the Earth itself in its entirety, where profound and severe human omni-presence is now acknowledged. Quantified thresholds or tipping points have been identified beyond which the human enterprise becomes threatened and life conditions distinctly undesirable. Yet, science-based quantifications and models depicting the directions, rates of change and boundaries of the global environment keep struggling with the complexity of humans, societies, and technologies as they entangle with the rest of the Earth, applying environing technologies and environing media to change and conceive of the natural world. Operating within the boundaries – i.e., defining how the “operational space” can and should be used and shared – is increasingly recognized as a societal challenge and, hence, a relevant subject of knowledge in the Humanities. This chapter offers approaches that take stock of ongoing theorizations and conceptualizations of the complex entanglements of media, technology, and environment and suggests ways forward. A key part of the argument is the current emergence of new Human-Earth Histories pursued in tandem by historians and other practitioners of environmental humanities (geo-humanities, climate humanities, and others), and Earth system scientists, co-exploring new ways of linking past, present, and future. This synchronizing work of Geo-anthropology holds a potential of bringing environmental data into resonance with societal and historical temporalities while at the same offering critical reflexivity of the implications of an ever more environed world.
Part of ISBN 9781003282891, 9781032253824, 9781032253855
QC 20250623