The document discusses how human activity has fundamentally altered the planet to such an extent that we have entered a new geological epoch called the Anthropocene. Key points: - A panel of geologists determined that the stable climate of the Holocene epoch has ended and the Earth has entered "a stratigraphic interval without close parallel in the last several million years" due to human impacts. - Urban-industrial systems have become the planet's most important geophysical force, consuming 75% of energy and producing 80% of greenhouse gas emissions. Cities metabolize enormous global flows of resources and are hubs of environmental change. - The growth of cities and urbanization has been central to driving human impacts that define

1. Urban
Ecological
Security
and
the
‘Anthropocene’
Prof.
Stephen
Graham
Newcastle
University

2. What
is
‘Nature’
and
How
Do
CiEes
Relate
to
It?

3.
Our
world,
our
old
world
that
we
have
inhabited
for
the
last
12,000
years,
has
ended.
This
February
[…],
the
StraEgraphy
Commission
of
the
Geological
Society
of
London
was
adding
the
newest
and
highest
story
to
the
geological
story.
To
the
quesEon
"Are
we
now
living
in
the
Anthropocene?"
the
21
members
of
the
Commission
unanimously
answer
"yes."
They
adduce
robust
evidence
that
the
Holocene
epoch
-­‐-­‐
the
interglacial
span
of
unusually
stable
climate
that
has
allowed
the
rapid
evoluEon
of
agriculture
and
urban
civilizaEon
-­‐-­‐
has
ended
and
that
the
Earth
has
entered
"a
straEgraphic
interval
without
close
parallel
in
the
last
several
million
years.”
In
addiEon
to
the
buildup
of
greenhouse
gases,
the
straEgraphers
cite
human
landscape
transformaEon
which
"now
exceeds
[annual]
natural
sediment
producEon
by
an
order
of
magnitude,"
the
ominous
acidificaEon
of
the
oceans,
and
the
relentless
destrucEon
of
biota.
This
new
age,
they
explain,
is
defined
both
by
the
heaEng
trend
[…]
and
by
the
radical
instability
expected
of
future
environments.
In
somber
prose,
they
warn
that
"the
combinaEon
of
exEncEons,
global
species
migraEons
and
the
widespread
replacement
of
natural
vegetaEon
with
agricultural
monocultures
is
producing
a
disEncEve
contemporary
biostraEgraphic
signal.
These
effects
are
permanent,
as
future
evoluEon
will
take
place
from
surviving
(and
frequently
anthropogenically
relocated)
stocks.[…]
EvoluEon
itself,
in
other
words,
has
been
forced
into
a
new
trajectory.”
Mike
Davis
(2008)

4. Welcome
to
the
‘Anthropocene’:
Capitalist
urban-­‐Industrialism
as
the
Planet’s
most
important
geophysical
force
• Human
and
urban
manufacture
of
‘Nature’
–
climates,
biospheres,
carbon
cycles,
hydrological
and
geomorphological
systems,
even
organisms
and
ecosystems
-­‐-­‐
has
reached
such
an
extent
since
the
Industrial
revoluEon
that
we
no
longer
inhabit
the
post-­‐glacial
Holocene
• Instead
we
live
in
the
Anthropocene
(term
coined
in
2000
by
the
Nobel
Prize-­‐winning
geologist,
Paul
Crutzen)

5. Holocene-­‐Anthropocenic
boundaries
can
now
be
discerned
in
ocean
sediments,
ice
sheet
cores,
pollen
cores
etc.
Paul
J
Crutzen

6. •
•
•
•
Incredibly
rapid
growth
and
extension
of
ciEes
and
urban-­‐industrial
systems
absolutely
central
to
this
process
Already,
ciEes
consume
75%
of
world
energy
and
produce
80%
greenhouse
gas
emissions
Main
hubs
of
global
water,
energy,
food,
waste,
carbon
flows
and
demands;
generators
of
resource
conflicts;
foci
of
geneEc,
hydrological,
nano-­‐,
chemical
and
geological
engineering
(intenEonal
and
unintenEonal)
on
earth-­‐shaping
scales
Use
huge,
geographically-­‐stretched
systems
of
infrastructure
to
metabolise
enormous
flows
of
food,
water,
energy,
wastes,
commodiEes,
raw
materials
&
resources
from
distant
sites
through
the
city
and
the
bodies
of
its
human
(and
non-­‐
human)
inhabitants
within
globalised
and
‘neoliberal’
worlds
of
trade
and
exchange

8. Brad
allenby

11. Anthropocene
Concepts
Resonates
With
Posthumanist
Ontologies
Put
Forward
by
Actor-­‐Network
and
Cyborg
Urbanisa@on
Theories
• Fixed
human/machine,
human/animal,
physical/non-­‐
physical,
social/technological
&
social/natural
binaries
blur
away
• A
subjec5fica5on
of
objects,
and
the
objec5fica5on
of
subjects
(Donna
Haraway,
Bruno
Latour
etc.)
• “Physical
and
biological
phenomena
must
be
reconceived
as
outcomes,
to
some
degree
of
poliEcal-­‐
economic,
as
well
as
ecological,
processes.
The
forces
of
environmental
colonialism
and
triage
are
simply
a
prelude
of
the
management
project
immanent
in
the
Anthropocene
”
John
Byrne,
Leigh
Glover
and
Cecilia
MarEnez
w002
• Urban
Technonature:
“Cyborgs
are
not
creatures
of
prisEne
Nature;
they
are
the
planned
and
unplanned
offspring
of
manufactured
environments,
fusing
into
new
organic
compounds
of
naturalized
maner
and
arEficialized
anE-­‐maner”
Tim
Luke
(1997)

12. • “The
enEre
planet
now
is
increasingly
a
"built
environment"
or
"planned
habitat"
as
polluEon
modifies
atmospheric
chemistry,
urbanizaEon
restructures
weather
events,
biochemistry
redesigns
the
geneEcs
of
exisEng
biomass,
and
architecture
accretes
new
bioEc
habitats
inside
of
sprawling
megaciEes.”
•
(Luke
T
W,
1997,
"At
the
end
of
Nature:
cyborgs,
'humachines',
and
environments
in
postmodernity"
Environment
and
Planning
A
29(8)
1367
–
1380
)

13. Manhew
Gandy:
Cyborg
UrbanisaEon
• Cyborgian
thinking
suggests
a
way
of
thinking
about
ciEes
as
a
whole
• Geographically
and
temporally-­‐stretched
hybrids
of
human,
organic,
technological,
conEnually
connecEng
urban
sites
and
processes
to
‘rural’
ones
• Helps
create
a
new
vocabulary
for
understanding
what
we
mean
by
the
‘public
realm’
against
the
vulnerability
and
inter-­‐dependency
of
urban
socieEes
and
the
complex
technological
networks
and
organic
and
biospehric
metabolisms,
stretched
across
different
geographical
scales,
that
make
them
possible.

14. Cyborg
UrbanisaEon
Revealed
During
Disrup5on
of
Infrastructures
• “Cyborgs,
like
us,
are
endlessly
fascinated
by
machinic
breakdowns,
which
would
cause
disrupEons
in,
or
denials
of
access
to,
their
megatechnical
sources
of
being.”
(above
NYC
blackout,
2003)
•
•
(Luke
T
W,
1997,
"At
the
end
of
Nature:
cyborgs,
'humachines',
and
environments
in
postmodernity"
Environment
and
Planning
A
29(8)
1367
–
1380
)

15. • Also
unerringly
reveal
the
osen
concealed
poli5cs
of
cyborganised
ciEes
• e.g.
Katrina
in
2005
not
a
‘natural
disaster,’
‘technical
failure’
or
‘Act
of
God.’
Rather,
the
inevitable
result
of:
• Climate
change
accentuaEng
hurricane
• Hiung
a
city
denuded
of
natural
protecEon
and
• Very
poorly
covered
by
a
levee
network
that
was
systemaEcally
racially
biased
over
centuries
of
constructed
socio-­‐nature
in
context
of
• A
NeoconservaEve
and
racist
Federal
Government
that
had
systemaEcally
skewed
Emergency
Planning
towards
terrorism
for
poliEcal
ends

16. Infrastructure
disrup5ons
reveal
osen
taken
for
granted
and
normalised
‘infrastructures’
and
cyborg
assemblies
especially
blackouts
In
cyborg
ciEes,
increasingly
threaten
life,
not
mere
inconvenience

17. Dominant
Responses:
Earth
Systems
and
Geoengineering
and
Securi@sa@on
• “The
human/natural/built
integrated
systems
of
the
Anthropocene
cannot
be
understood
through
just
one
worldview,
be
it
scienEfic,
theological,
or
postmodern
(mutually
exclusive
but
equally
valid
ontologies)”
Brad
Allenby
• “The
world
as
design
space”
;
“The
human
as
design
space”
• “Earth
Systems
Engineering
and
Management
is
the
capability
to
design,
engineer,
and
manage,
through
dialog
and
conEnual
feedback,
integrated
built/human/natural
systems
that
achieve
the
mulEvariate
and
someEmes
mutually
exclusive
goals
and
desires
of
humanity,
including
at
the
least
personal,
social,
economic,
technological,
and
environmental
dimensions,
within
the
constraints
imposed
by
the
states
and
dynamics
of
exisEng
complex
adapEve
systems.”
Brad
Allenby

18. We
must
be
wary
of
‘quick
technical
fix’
ideas
of
‘Terraforming’,
‘Geoengineering’
and
‘Earth
Systems
Engineering’
in
the
Anthropocene.
These
depoli5cise
and
commodify
the
problems,
legiEmise
an
unchanged
poliEcal
economy,
and
would
inevitably
bring
major
unintended
effects

19. Securi@sa@on
and
Weaponisa@on
of
the
Anthropocene
• Ole
Wæver's
Copenhagen
School
SecuriEzaEon
Theory
(1995)
•
Security
as
a
“speech
act”
where
a
securiEzing
actor
designates
a
threat
to
a
specified
reference
object
and
declares
an
existenEal
threat
implying
a
right
to
use
extraordinary
means
to
fend
it
off.
•
Such
a
process
of
“securiEzaEon”
is
successful
when
the
construcEon
of
an
“existenEal
threat”
by
a
policy
maker
is
socially
accepted
and
where
“survival”
against
existenEal
threats
is
crucial.
• Strong
Anthropocenic
turn
in
securiEsaEon
discourse

21. Biopiracy
and
biofuels
push
(indigenous
groups
in
Indonesia,
protesEng,
above)
Global
South
‘land
grab’
by
global
North
agribusiness

22. City
AuthoriEes
increasingly
reaching
out
to
secure
their
own
energy,
hydrological
or
food
futures
hnp://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/6377867.stm

23. • Neoliberalised
‘global’
ciEes
osen
have
a
parasi@c
relaEonship
with
near
and
distant
hinterlands
• Global
neoliberal
urbanisaEon
has
led
to
‘devastaEng
dispariEes
between
the
mobility
of
capital
and
labour
that
have
produced
new
forms
of
economic
serfdom
in
the
global
South’
Manhew
Gandy
• Resource
(food,
water,
energy)
grabs
organised
and
finance
through
the
financial
centres
and
technopoles
of
the
North’s
global
finance
capitals
• New
highly
regressive
paradims
of
‘urban
ecological
security’
(Simon
Marvin
and
Mike
Hodgson)
E.g.
Daewoo
(South
Korean
corporaEon)
has
just
leased
half
of
all
the
arable
land
in
Madagascar
to
feed
South
Korean
ciEes
in
the
future
The
Anthropocenic
Global
City
System:
A
New
Imperialism?

24. Conclusions:
The
Anthropocenic
City
• DrasEcally
destablise
concepts
of
‘city’,
‘technology’,
‘nature’
and
‘scale’,
along
with
persistent
‘urban-­‐rural’,
‘natural-­‐social’,
‘natural-­‐technological’
and
‘global-­‐local’
binaries
• Profound
implicaEons
for
conceptualisaEons
of
the
‘urban’.
Is
the
enEre
Anthropocenic
biosphere,
in
effect,
‘urban’?
Tim
Luke
(2009)
talks
of
the
mulEple
interconnecEons
and
new
spaEal
pracEces
of
“urbanatura”
(Tim
Luke,
2009);
• “The
accidental
normaliity
of
greenhouse-­‐gassing
global
capitalism
envelops
humans,
non-­‐humans,
and
hybrids
in
technonaturalized
systems
and
structures”
• Crucially,
these
processes
map
conEnuously
onto,
and
through,
more
usual
policy
paradigms
and
discourses:
“whether
they
examine
technoscience
operaEons,
natural
disasters,
or
socio-­‐spaEal
collapses”,
new
research
must
“scan
the
property
boundaries
of
urban
space
as
they
are
stabilized
in
ordinary
policy
terms
such
as
urbanizaEon,
land
use,
environment,
river
basins,
industrializaEon,
economic
growth,
sprawl,
or
natural
resources.
Once
scruEnized
more
closely,
the
unstable,
unconvenEonal,
and
undetected
properEes
of
mulEple
industrial
hybridiEes
do
emerge
out
of
foggy
phenomena,
including
the
’greenhouse
effect’”
(Tim
Luke,
2009)

25. •
•
•
•
•
•
•
Reveals
limits
of
both
‘sustainability’
and
environmentalist
debates:
Sustainability
discourses
osen
involve
elements
of
‘greenwash’,
over-­‐aestheEc
concepEons,
or
outright
bourgeois
environmentalism.
“Sustainability
is
too
osen
a
self-­‐absorbed
mechanism
for
avoiding
the
complexity
of
the
Anthropogenic
world”
Brad
Allenby
Environmentalist
tropes
of
prisEne
nature,
meanwhile,
“suggest
the
importance
of
minimizing
alteraEons
of
many
habitats;
but
so
many
habitats
are
now
obviously
"arEficial"
that
the
invocaEon
of
a
preservaEonist
ethos
is
frequently
inappropriate
if
ecology,
rather
than
aestheEcs,
is
considered
as
the
basis
for
policy
prescripEon”
Simon
Dalby
New
“technonatural
formaEons”
required
based
on
a
“foundaEonal
reimaginaEon
of
the
innovaEons
unfolding
in
many
intersecEng
terns
in
what
are
called
“Nature”
and
“society”’
(Tim
Luke,
1997)
Need
a
new
ethics
and
research
paradigms
for
the
Anthropocene
to
poli5cise
the
Anthropocenic
city:
Must
blur
debates
about
global
neoliberalised
poliEcal
economy,
global
urbanisaEon,
global
environmental
change
and
environmetal
jusEce
Planetary,
anthropocenic,
urban
and
human
concepts
of
‘security’
required
rather
than
naEonal-­‐militarisEc
ones
Dangers
that
dominant
responses
-­‐-­‐
earth
systems
and
geoengineering
and
securiEsaEon
-­‐-­‐
offer
myths
of
technological
panaceas
based
on
further
securiEsaEon,
commodificaEon,
colonisaEon
centred
on
global
north
corporate
capital
and
‘global’
metropolitan
regions
Emerging
militarisaEon
of
Anthropocene?
Oil,
biofuels,
biopiracy,
water,
land-­‐
grabs
and
food
security

26. Reading
• Luke
T
W,
1997,
"At
the
end
of
Nature:
cyborgs,
'humachines',
and
environments
in
postmodernity"
Environment
and
Planning
A
29(8)
1367
–
1380
)
•