ABSTRACT
This chapter demonstrates that scientific descriptions of the Anthropocene are inherently linked to normative statements about past, present and future states of the Earth system. Particularly, the argument elaborates on the distinction between the Anthropocene depicted as a ‘crisis’ and ‘opportunity’. In doing so, the chapter has two aims. On the one hand, it analyses the different normative logics underpinning these two ways of understanding the history of humans on Earth. On the other hand, it clarifies their implications for responses to global change by elucidating how they invigorate existing proposals of Earth System Governance and geo-engineering, respectively.
