Reframing the anthropocene

Armin Grunwald's article – ‘Toward a “Good” Anthropocene: Navigating the Vicious Circle of Technological Progress and Unintended Consequences' – should be required reading for students of sustainability. It is a tour de force analysis of the concept and implications of the Anthropocene. Important techno-enthusiasts, for example the late futurist Herman Kahn, argued that technological innovation can be the ultimate problem solver and wealth creator. Nevertheless, the technology-heavy Anthropocene is almost always presented to students as an era of predominately negative consequences of human decisions. Thus, an important contribution of Grunwald's paper is that it challenges this conventional wisdom. Instead, he suggests that the Anthropocene could become characterized as ‘good’. This creative thinking should motivate sustainability educators and curriculum developers to focus on how to equip future sustainability policy and technology leaders with the knowledge and skills necessary to reframe the Anthropocene, to transform a perceived vicious circle into a virtuous one.