It’s another day in the age of the Anthropocene where a global game of musical chairs continues to play out. As humans continue to plunder and pillage the earth in a global economy that thrives on converting the living to the dead, more chairs get removed from the game. The game doesn’t care about your race, gender, or class it just needs your chair so those that think they are watching the game from afar can enrich themselves at the expense of the living. What these game managers do not know is they are part of the game as well. The only living organism that gets to see the end of the game is Mother Earth, and it will squeeze humans and most other living beings on this planet out of existence. These psychopathic oligarchs are nothing more than a pimple on Mother Earth’s ass. Many experts believe the age of the Anthropocene began in 1950shortly after the United States dropped nuclear bombs on Japan. The Anthropocene is the age in which humans are causing massive changes to the planet which can include mass extinctions of plant and animal species, polluted the oceans and altering the atmosphere. The Anthropocene epoch will also be known as the time of the decline and fall of the United States as the world’s global superpower. It will be a time where the global superpower torch will be passed to China. Some critics of U.S. Imperialism will gush at this passing of this torch, and continue to compliment China’s “New Silk Road” ambitions and their investment over intervention strategy. While I long and fight for an end to U.S. Imperialism, as well as, the U.S. ceasing to be the planet’s superpower, I will not celebrate the successes of China. China’s global model still includes converting the living planet to the dead that contributes to global consumption using global markets. China’s New Silk Road is going to cost roughly 900 billion dollars. This New Silk Road includes a “One Belt and One Road” mantra which will include land and maritime trading routes to connect Asia, Africa, and Europe. China calls this a new era of globalization where it will lend 8 trillion dollars in infrastructure to 68 countries. They believe this will add a third to global GDP. Basically, they are looking to find ways for more people to consume more products to speed up the destruction of the living planet which will accelerate ecological collapse. This investment versus intervention strategy by China includes investing in a South American railway that would cut into the middle of the Amazon rainforest that houses the lungs of our planet. Indeed, many geopolitical analysts are taking note of China’s investments in Africa, Latin America, Asia, and Europe. But are they taking note these investments are in natural gas pipelines, mining, roads, rails, infrastructure, and ports are an investment in accelerated human consumption, which has already led to 52% of the world’s wildlife vanishing from 1970 to 2010? Are these analysts noting China can’t even clean up their own backyard? This past October, data showed only four of 28 northern Chinese cities met their air quality targets in October and air quality in 338 Chinese cities worsened. While investors may be very “bullish” about a 460 billion dollarinvestment into Artificial Intelligence, are they “bullish” about China using minerals from the earth that destroys the habitat of actual intelligent beings to create this artificial intelligence? More people are voicing their concerns at the income inequality exhibited throughout the world. It’s great people are voicing their displeasure that the planet’s richest 1% owning half of the world’s wealth. It’s also great that it’s being pointed out 1,542 billionaires have accumulated 6 trillion dollars of combined wealth which is up 17% from last year. But as many people rail against billionaire oligarchs do they realize out of the 195 new billionaires in 2017, 76 came from China? How many political pundits tell us this 76 were the most new billionaires from any other country this year? The Age of Anthropocene will be synonymous with words like “unprecedented”, “extinction”, “migration”, “collapse”, “ignorance”, and “greed” to name a few. It’s an age where global systems implemented by humans will have global impacts on all life on Earth. One has to wonder will this be the age that humans will finally shift their focus from global to local? Is this the age humans stare down the harsh reality of their future? The answers to these questions are yes, but it’s a matter of doing this by force or by choice. This article has been excerpted from: ‘What Does It Mean to Live in the Age of the Anthropocene?’ Courtesy: Counterpunch.org
