The Anthropocene From Latin America

In a context of unprecedented exacerbation of the socio-environmental crisis facing the planet, and the growing convergence of various academic disciplines at the global level to understand it and generate inputs to address it, the idea of the Anthropocene has emerged to designate a new geological epoch specifically related to human action and its impact on the global environment in its multiple dimensions. The concept has become a powerful interpretive tool for accounting for planetary boundaries and, at the same time, has not been without controversy and reconceptualizations that have enriched its analytical possibilities as a complex and heterogeneous field of knowledge, from which diverse, sometimes conflicting narratives emerge, as well as different proposals for solutions to the contemporary environmental crisis. This chapter analyzes the main controversies that have arisen from the validation of the Anthropocene, emphasizing the discussions and proposals generated in Latin America around the concept, as well as the possible futures arising from the generation of a new awareness of the limits of planet Earth from the perspective of the coevolution between society and nature.