"Since 2019, we've covered the debate among geologists over whether to dub our current epoch the "Anthropocene" by the measurable mark we've made through mining, deforestation, building and nuclear bombs on the geologic record. The term comes from the Greek, anthropos, meaning human. Top geologists voted against that last year, but the decision hasn't stopped photographers from using the term as a frame to explore humans' relationship to the world we're remaking."
""Just as a term, it's a really useful way of focusing the mind on the fact that we humans are having a dramatic effect in a very, very short period of time," he says. On a macro scale, that effect has been well-documented by photographers, with aerial shots of waterways clogged with plastic, the scars on barren land from deforestation and countless smokestacks spewing pollution into the air."
"But to him, such work has ceased to elicit the same shock it once did. "We learn to ignore stuff quite quickly," he says. "I wanted to come at the subject from a kind of sideways angle." That sideways angle is reflected in Nelson's new book The Anthropocene Illusion, which focuses less on humans' destruction of nature but more on how that destruction is warping our relationship with the natural world."
Human activities such as mining, deforestation, construction and nuclear tests have left measurable marks on the geologic record that prompted debate over naming the current epoch the "Anthropocene." The term derives from the Greek anthropos, meaning human. Top geologists voted against adopting the name, yet photographers continue to use the concept to examine human-environment relations. Photographer Zed Nelson focuses on how environmental degradation reshapes human connections with nature, spending six years traveling to 14 countries and photographing national parks, theme parks, zoos and hotels to reveal contrived, paradoxical relationships with an altered Earth.
Read at www.npr.org
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