The End of Sustainability: Resilience and the Future of Environmental Governance in the Anthropocene

In Chapter 1 ("Welcome to the Anthropocene"), the authors not only provide the reasons they agree with those who describe "our current epoch as the Anthropocene-a new era in which humans are the key agent of change on the planet," but also "make the case that we need a new approach to environmental governance . . . , one informed by a new narrative based on understanding and responding to climate change." Why the trickster? "In the dominant US culture," the authors note, "resilience theory's scientific framework currently lacks a resonating cultural narrative, impeding its assimilation into law and management." The study involves a "combination of climate change, bark beetle infestation, and wildfire[, which] is shifting New Mexico's forest watersheds in irreversible ways."