400Ppm: Exit Holocene, Enter Anthropocene

Introduction by
The Editors
Published
July 26, 2013
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On 10 May 2013, 400 parts per million of CO2 concentration in the atmosphere was recorded at the Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii. In light of these potentially seismic changes in the atmosphere and society, Society and Space invited some interdisciplinary reflections on 400 ppm.

O

n 10 May 2013, 400 parts per million of CO2 concentration in the atmosphere was recorded at the Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii. This seemingly innocuous number failed to grab the attention of mainstream media, but it inadvertently signaled a quiet earth revolution – a geohistoric moment of “wild destratification”, as Deleuze and Guattari would have it. At the start of the Industrial Revolution (and the designated origins of the Anthropocene), atmospheric CO2 was at 280 ppm. The last time CO2 levels hit 400 ppm was in the Pilocene (between 2.6-5.3 million years ago). In light of these potentially seismic changes in the atmosphere and society, Society and Space invited some interdisciplinary reflections on 400 ppm.

essays in this forum

400Ppm: Critical Climate Change Scholarship

The fact that, in mainstream environmentalism, nature appears increasingly as a set of dynamic, creative, and resilient social-ecological processes is symptomatic of a moment of real possibility for the creation of alternative future natures – and one that, we would argue, a critical project must actively embrace.

By

Elizabeth Johnson, Jessica Lehman, Harlan Morehouse, and Sara Nelson

400Ppm: Coping With Abundance Rather Than Scarcity

The symbolic threshold of 400ppm is a poignant reminder that we are well past the point where climate change response can be a planned, gradualist transition. It is much more likely that profound and unwanted change in the next few years (perhaps not even decades) will make a mockery of current policies on climate change and other issues.

By

Lesley Head

400Ppm: The 400th Part Per Million

Millions of carbon dioxide molecules passed through the Mauna Loa measuring equipment on the 9th May 2013 to generate the milestone daily average of 400ppm. I will focus on one – the 400thpart per million – and the story of its carbon atom. There are many such science fictions that could be told; this one is indicative and personal.

By

Jamie Lorimer

400Ppm: Wither Carbon Accounting?

In the year of 400 ppm, the politics of carbon accounting seem to have reached a dead end. However, rather than interpreting this historical juncture as the failure of climate politics, we may use it to foster more productive political imaginaries.

By

Eva Lövbrand and Björn-Ola Linnér

400Ppm: We’re Lucky It’s Not 500 Already

Amongst all the hubbub about CO2 concentrations at Mauna Loa reaching 400 parts per million, another important point is being overlooked—were it not for the fortuitous presence of natural carbon sinks, the CO2 concentration would already have been much higher. We are being buffered from the full impact of our CO2 emissions, but this may not continue indefinitely.

By

Richard Betts

400Ppm: Regime Change In Geo-Social Formations

In other words, the assumption is still that human subjects mobilise themselves to move across an immobile Earth. But have we been too short-sighted, too horizontal, too human-centred in our imaginings of borders?

By

Nigel Clark

400Ppm: Passing A New World Threshold

When coming across the figure of 400ppm, I was struck by how difficult this was. 400ppm – what is one supposed to do with this figure? Tellingly, it is not only the mediators and audiences of science, but the scientists themselves that are struggling.

By

Angela Last

400Ppm: 400 Ppm And The Ages Of The Earth

What does the recent passing of the 400 parts per million (ppm) threshold in atmospheric carbon dioxide mean, in terms of the history of the Earth? It’s tempting to answer this question by simply taking a graph of atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations over geological time, and drawing a horizontal line back to see when it was last at the current level.

By

Bronislaw Szerszynski

400Ppm: Symbolism, Dread, And Panic

The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has never before in human evolutionary history exceeded this level. But what does 400 ppm symbolise? And why might it cause dread and panic?

By

Mike Hulme

400Ppm: Riding The Keeling Curve

Do you remember where you were when you first heard the news? I was invigilating in an examination with a physical geography colleague. About halfway through the examination my colleague was consulting his iPad when he turned the screen to me saying, “this is not good!”

By

Mark Whitehead

400Ppm: Geographies Of A Global Experiment

The wavering, saw-toothed plot of atmospheric carbon dioxide levels pushed determinedly over the threshold of 400ppm, tracing a line from the global space of the atmosphere to the hermetic spaces of geoscientist Charles Keeling’s early CO2 observations. As one of millions of virtual witnesses to this traversal, I was reminded that Keeling’s deployment of his 5-litre flasks was not the first time that a glass orb had changed science and, with it, the world.

By

Martin Mahony

400Ppm: Exit Holocene, Enter Anthropocene

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cholars and practitioners of urban planning need to rethink the field’s futures at this important historical juncture: some might call it a moment of truth when there is little left to hide. The COVID-19 pandemic exposed many cracks, contradictions, and inequalities that have always existed but are now more visible. This also includes the global vaccine apartheid that is ongoing as I write these words. Moreover, this is a time when the violence through which U.S. imperialism has exercised power worldwide is increasingly exposed. Protests in the summer of 2020, which spread all over the United States like fire through a long-dried haystack, showed Americans and the whole world that racialized violence and police brutality are real. They also revealed that such brutality is spatially facilitated in American apartheid—a condition that planning has been far from innocent in creating and maintaining. I think this reckoning is particularly important in the United States, the belly of the beast, where there might have been more of an illusion about planning innocence.

What’s a Rich Text element?

Moreover, this is a time when the violence through which U.S. imperialism has exercised power worldwide is increasingly exposed. Protests in the summer of 2020, which spread all over the United States like fire through a long-dried haystack, showed Americans and the whole world that racialized violence and police brutality are real. They also revealed that such brutality is spatially facilitated in American apartheid—a condition that planning has been far from innocent in creating and maintaining. I think this reckoning is particularly important in the United States, the belly of the beast, where there might have been more of an illusion about planning innocence.

  • Moreover, this is a time when the violence through which U.S. imperialism has exercised power worldwide is increasingly exposed.
  • Protests in the summer of 2020, which spread all over the United States like fire through a long-dried haystack, showed Americans and the whole world that racialized violence and police brutality are real.
  • They also revealed that such brutality is spatially facilitated in American apartheid—a condition that planning has been far from innocent in creating and maintaining.
  • I think this reckoning is particularly important in the United States, the belly of the beast, where there might have been more of an illusion about planning innocence.

What’s a Rich Text element?

Moreover, this is a time when the violence through which U.S. imperialism has exercised power worldwide is increasingly exposed. Protests in the summer of 2020, which spread all over the United States like fire through a long-dried haystack, showed Americans and the whole world that racialized violence and police brutality are real. They also revealed that such brutality is spatially facilitated in American apartheid—a condition that planning has been far from innocent in creating and maintaining. I think this reckoning is particularly important in the United States, the belly of the beast, where there might have been more of an illusion about planning innocence.

  1. Moreover, this is a time when the violence through which U.S. imperialism has exercised power worldwide is increasingly exposed.
  2. Protests in the summer of 2020, which spread all over the United States like fire through a long-dried haystack, showed Americans and the whole world that racialized violence and police brutality are real.
  3. They also revealed that such brutality is spatially facilitated in American apartheid—a condition that planning has been far from innocent in creating and maintaining. I think this reckoning is particularly important in the United States, the belly of the beast, where there might have been more of an illusion about planning innocence.

What’s a Rich Text element?

Moreover, this is a time when the violence through which U.S. imperialism has exercised power worldwide is increasingly exposed. Protests in the summer of 2020, which spread all over the United States like fire through a long-dried haystack, showed Americans and the whole world that racialized violence and police brutality are real. They also revealed that such brutality is spatially facilitated in American apartheid—a condition that planning has been far from innocent in creating and maintaining. I think this reckoning is particularly important in the United States, the belly of the beast, where there might have been more of an illusion about planning innocence.

What’s a Rich Text element?

Moreover, this is a time when the violence through which U.S. imperialism has exercised power worldwide is increasingly exposed. Protests in the summer of 2020, which spread all over the United States like fire through a long-dried haystack, showed Americans and the whole world that racialized violence and police brutality are real. They also revealed that such brutality is spatially facilitated in American apartheid—a condition that planning has been far from innocent in creating and maintaining. I think this reckoning is particularly important in the United States, the belly of the beast, where there might have been more of an illusion about planning innocence.

What’s a Rich Text element?

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O

n 10 May 2013, 400 parts per million of CO2 concentration in the atmosphere was recorded at the Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii. This seemingly innocuous number failed to grab the attention of mainstream media, but it inadvertently signaled a quiet earth revolution – a geohistoric moment of “wild destratification”, as Deleuze and Guattari would have it. At the start of the Industrial Revolution (and the designated origins of the Anthropocene), atmospheric CO2 was at 280 ppm. The last time CO2 levels hit 400 ppm was in the Pilocene (between 2.6-5.3 million years ago). In light of these potentially seismic changes in the atmosphere and society, Society and Space invited some interdisciplinary reflections on 400 ppm.