Guest essay by Eric Worrall
According to University of Pennsylvania climate communicator Hanna Morris, use of the word “Anthropocene” facilitates disregard for the disproportionate suffering of indigenous peoples, and encourages the false belief that we are all equally guilty for the current climate crisis.
The language of climate change—and the Anthropocene
Brandon Baker
February 5, 2019Hanna E. Morris, a doctoral student at the Annenberg School for Communication who researches environmental communication, explains the sudden rise of ‘Anthropocene’ as the latest buzzword in the climate dialogue.
Climate change, global warming, climate crisis—the operative term for the most pressing global issue seems to change by the year.
It’s how we discuss climate change that intrigues Hanna Morris, a doctoral student at the Annenberg School for Communication, who will soon present a new paper that assesses climate news frames at the annual International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR) conference this July in Madrid, Spain. She tackles the rise of the term “Anthropocene” in climate news, which can be summarized as a relatively new word that is meant to mark the beginning of a new epoch defined by human-caused environmental change.
In the paper, Morris argues that the word not only misinterprets the actual share of blame—the oversimplified notion that humans are all equally responsible for climate change—but ties up the problem in a neat, media-friendly bow.
“By eliminating differences,” she writes in the paper, “histories of colonial violence, and the disproportionate burden of environmental harm felt by Indigenous people is neutralized and therefore evaded. The idea of the Anthropocene therefore validates ‘planetary scale’ projects designed by white male capitalists working from an unaddressed imperial logic.”
Colonialism and capitalism, she argues, drove climate change, and are now deciding how to frame who is responsible for it, who is most affected, how it will be solved, and how we should collectively feel about it.
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“So, by saying that we all are to blame and that we all are equally experiencing climate change in a new epoch is a dangerous generalization that wipes away historical context. I worry that European and North American powers are once again perpetuating imperial violence and harm through the idea of the Anthropocene. And I explore this problem across the United States news media in my most recent paper.”
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Read more: https://penntoday.upenn.edu/news/language-climate-change-and-anthropocene
Sadly Hanna’s paper has not yet been released, but Hannah raises an important issue.
When white male climate scientists promote the use of the word “Anthropocene”, are they actually unconsciously assuming the role of an imperialist colonialist capitalist aggressor, and unwittingly facilitating public acceptance of the climate exploitation of indigenous peoples?
UPDATE: Fixed headline to read UPenn rather than Penn State. – Anthony
PhD , Piled higher and Deeper , BS that is in the case of climate communication .
‘She tackles the rise of the term “Anthropocene” in climate news, which can be summarized as a relatively new word’ nope, some basic research would have told her back in the days before reality made the ‘warming ‘ claim seems so stupid its was change to ‘climate change’ Anthropocene had long be around as a means to outline if was all down ‘evil human ‘ and the situation was ‘unprecedent ‘ not because it was accurate word to us but because it was a ‘scary ‘ one , see acidification too.
It is the climate consensus extremists like the young bigot whose nonsensical racist writings are being discussed here who are imposing suffering on the world’s poor.
Most importantly the “Anthropocene” is a non-scientist contrived term only used by deceptive ideologues seeking to mislead people.
How did so many insane people get into academia?
Where else would they go? Certainly not the private sector…
My strengthening belief is that higher education now only exists to keep the unemployable from cluttering up the job market for a few years longer.
“Colonialism and capitalism, she argues, drove climate change”
I don’t know about that, but they definitely drove the increases in lifespan and quality of life.
The phrase, “climate communicator”, is a dangerous generalization which ignores white female colonial capitalist economy enabled delusions of intelligent analysis.
I used to be a nonentity…Now I am a white male , the perpetrator of all evil. Sort of badass on steroids. (I am on steroids.)
However may I point out that the use of the word “white” in this context is racist and the use of the word “male” is sexist. So back to your PC guide book and try again Hanna.
Don’t you know, according to the PC guide book it’s impossible to be racist against whites or sexist against males as only whites are racist and only males are sexist. I know, doesn’t make any sense to me either, but there you have it.
Penn is not Penn State.
Was he not a Madonna’s Mann?
Meh. Another self-flagellating white commie SJW snowflake.
Keep it up, kiddies, pushing your chicken-hearted pecking order, schlupping rank velocipedes to nowhere. There’s a reason no-one gives a damn.
Hanna E. Morris, doctoral student at the Annenberg School for Communication, this applies to you…
+10
LOL!
Piled higher and Dumber!
And this is a product of the higher education some feel should be free to all? A Phd candidate no less.
While I cringe when I read Hanna Morris’ efforts to imply that capitalism is responsible for the ‘slow violence’ of climate change, I found a nugget in her discussion here that makes sense to me:
Morris says, “Definitely avoiding generalizations is what I think is super important, and not looking for a buzzword that can encapsulate everything.
“That’s why sometimes climate change is seen as tyrannical because it’s a concept that is too broad and, in that way, limits really specific investigations, understandings, and identifications of problems that are situated.”
While Morris then shows her efforts to move away from this overly broad concept enter the sillinesses of socialism and ‘universitism,’ her conceptualization that the term ‘climate change’ is too broad to be able to be ‘fought’ is on point.
We are all subject to the assimilation of all climate and environmental ‘horrors’ under the umbrella of ‘climate change,’ an ‘axis of environmental evils’ that is too big to think about, and can only be fought with nation-splitting ideas.
Small, focused efforts to address/mitigate aspects of this overwhelming problem will move us in positive directions. Green New Deals will make ‘climate change,’ like health care, another American morass.
WHAT “overwhelming problem?”
So, how about we avoid generalizations like “climate communicator” in this specific instance, referring to Ms. Morris.
Clearly, such a generalization, in this specific instance, insults many other (male, female, other-identifying, white, black, mixed) individuals, by holding her up as a representative of all these others.
Well apparently there is no shortage of screwballs at Penn State.
Or U of Penn as the case may be.
OOPs. You’re right. My bad. My apologies to Penn State.
Saying this as a white male: It was capitalism that lifted the global masses, and is still lifting, out of soul-crushing poverty. But prosperity easily gained, remote from and forgetful of it’s source, creates monsters like Ms. Morris
Oh no — I feel guilty — what am I to do?
It’s even worse: the coming thermageddon is completely to blame on the emerging economies, if they would stay poor the next 80 years then there would not be a catastrophe in 2100.
You cannot blame white men on the future emissions in china india or africa.
She will figure out that higher atmospheric CO2 and warmer temperatures increase the carrying capacity of the Earth about the time both start dropping.
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It wasn’t me.
Penn State: The word “Anthropocene” is a Dangerous Generalisation which Ignores White Male Colonial Capitalist Guilt for Global Warming.
Yeah, whatever. More crap to be ignored.
If warming is good, then “Thanks, white guys”.
Yup, this whole scare has been completely bass ackwards. An amazing instance of mass delusion, a madness of the crowd. Unfortunately it seems that the only cure will be significant cooling, something which is both unlikely and probably very deadly.
One might wish everyone could be as wise as Judy Curry. See her recent Congressional testimony @ur momisugly judithcurry.com
The response to our raising the level of CO2 has been and will continue to be a ‘cure worse than the disease’.
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kim said: “The response to our raising the level of CO2 has been and will continue to be a ‘cure worse than the disease’.” +1
Stolen directly from Judy Curry.
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When I was getting my degree and licenses I knew the benefits of your route; I went my route because I figured I wouldn’t have to work side by side with dirtbags and assholes and annoying idiots … I was wrong.
The people that I have to deal with are still dirtbags, just more covert and conniving than the “uneducated” dirtbags.
I find it terribly racist not to acknowledge all of the critically important contributions to civilization made by women and people of all other races and religions.
“When we saw Mao Zedong wave his hand, we all went berserk,” recalled Yu Xiangzhen, then a 13-year-old schoolgirl whose bright red armband marked her out as one of millions of loyal Red (Green) Guards. “We shouted and screamed until we had no voices left.” The Guardian (with no self-reflection)
It’s nothing less than a Cultural Revolution. We won’t be taking the airplane position in a struggle session any time soon.
An elderly radio presenter in Cork used the phrase “horse manure” for something worthless. Perhaps drivel or hogwash would better describe this work. It is sad to see taxpayer money used to support this utterly worthless study.
“horse manure”, “drivel”, “Hogwash” are all perfectly fine words for describing this piece of bovine excrement.
Is Hanna her sister’s keeper? That is, does she share responsibility for any and all evil ever done by a woman? If not, why should men be accused of such crimes against humanity? If women in the past have benefited from an increased standard of living resulting from colonies supplying natural resources, does that make them culpable for colonialism unless they explicitly refused the higher standard of living? This is like guilt by association or imprisoning someone for their father’s crimes!
This certainly seems to reflect a pathology of our modern times!
“…Colonialism and capitalism, she argues, drove climate change, and are now deciding how to frame who is responsible for it, who is most affected, how it will be solved, and how we should collectively feel about it….”
…
I realize that the Annenberg School for Communication at the UofPenn feels that their output and that of their students has value and meaning to society–although many would probably disagree with that.
However, this paper by Ms. Morris uses a common theme in leftist academic discourse which is to play on the guilt complex of all of us in today’s human civilization–and especially the white male of European ancestry. Everything that is wrong with the world today–capitalism and inequality, the climate “crisis”, racism and sexism, continuing poverty, etc… — is all the fault of a white male dominated culture and civilization. We owe a debt of penance to the world for what we have done — and God only knows what that penance should be.
It apparently never occurred to these individuals that today’s generation of people in human civilization (and again, the white male especially) only inherited today’s world rather than create it. Human civilization as it now exists is the product of many, many centuries of social, economic, technological and political evolution and change along with important historical events ( such as wars and European colonialism) over which today’s generation had no control. Creating a guilt complex in our minds (or playing on the existing one) doesn’t change that.
Suggesting that the current generation bears responsibility for that which we only inherited rather than create represents a lack of critical thinking. Leftist apparently have awarded themselves a license to be that way without fear of criticism. That many of today’s generation have accepted and defend the fossil fueled and capitalist human civilization we live in does not necessarily make us responsible for its existence and its current state. We are all a product of the society, culture and civilization into which we were born and raised. It is only natural that we would defend it.
Perhaps Ms. Morris and the school believe that what they do will bring about the type of evolutionary changes in human civilization that they are expecting and want. Whether that they will succeed remains to be seen. In my view, cultures and civilizations have a way of evolving and changing in random ways that are very difficult or impossible to predict. There are many things that can affect or trigger that evolutionary change.
At any rate, having been sold on the climate alarmist narrative (and the cause of climate change) as Ms. Morris has only adds to what may be her cynical view of the world she lives in today. The value of what she and the school puts out remains very much an open question — and I don’t believe I even want to know how much tax money is involved.