ABSTRACT
This chapter explains literally changes in the air, and many of the other physical processes of the biosphere on such a scale that earth system scientists have started suggesting that we now live in a new geological era, which is now increasingly called the 'Anthropocene'. Human-induced climate change mounts, and some of the initial projections in the 1980s are confirmed as the years go by, we have effectively taken on the role of determining what the world's climate will be in the future. The chapter argues in light of the discussions of climate change that most of us, social scientists, and certainly many geographers are guilty of a form of 'terrestrocentrism'. Geopolitics has a long and bloody history of providing arguments for war and justifying the vilification of foreigners, but the perspectives of earth system science now offer powerful additional tools for understanding the interconnections between the fates of people in ecological conditions.
