The second Copernican revolution in the Anthropocene: an overview

This article explores three recent courses in the global study of sustainability on the Earth. The first section is an overview of the Global Environment Outlook 4: Environment for Development (GEO-4) report, which summarizes the radical and unsustainable transformations developed in the interaction...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor: Ayestaran, Ignacio
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2008
País:España
Institución:Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC)
Repositorio:UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:upcommons.upc.edu:2099/7083
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/2099/7083
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Environmental ethics
Global environment
Anthropocene
Copernican Revolution
Earth System Science
Environmental Ethics
Ètica mediambiental
Desenvolupament sostenible
Medi ambient
Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Desenvolupament humà i sostenible::Desenvolupament sostenible
Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Desenvolupament humà i sostenible::Medi ambient
Descripción
Sumario:This article explores three recent courses in the global study of sustainability on the Earth. The first section is an overview of the Global Environment Outlook 4: Environment for Development (GEO-4) report, which summarizes the radical and unsustainable transformations developed in the interaction between the biosphere and the noosphere during the last twenty years. The second section presents the Hilbertian program of the Earth System Science proposed by Paul J. Crutzen and Hans Joachim Schellnhuber. They have explained that, due to the human action, we are living in an emerging geological and historical epoch: the Anthropocene. This presupposes a methodological challenge, called by the authors “the second Copernican revolution”. Finally, the third section links this challenge to environmental ethics through the description of the work of Hans Jonas and Tongjin Yang.