One implication of transitioning to the Anthropocene is that we are in-between paradigms and hence experiencing heightened levels of conflict and confusion about values and expectations that guide our decisions and actions. We are searching for a new paradigm to understand human-nature relationships and the meaning of sustainable development.
The human development paradigm, which emphasized improving health, wealth, and other human conditions while ignoring the environment as anything other than a source of natural capital to be efficiently managed and allocated, is less and less potent because it’s getting harder to ignore the power of human action to disrupt biosphere conditions that provide a safe, nurturing operating space of humanity.
The alternative (new) environmental paradigm, which seeks to preserve and protect nature as something wild, balanced, inherently valued, and other than human, also makes less sense given the recognition that conditions of the biosphere are as much human as natural. It is increasingly difficult to ignore the interdependence of humans and nature or the ethical imperative of helping billions move out of poverty into the global middle class and the impacts on natural capital and ecological systems greater prosperity will bring.
A clearly articulated Anthropocene Paradigm has yet to emerge.