Our impact on nature has gradually got so great that humans have become a force of nature. This means that we can no longer understand nature without making allowance for humans.

2013.05.30 | Ida Hammerich Nielson

Sandstorms, tidal waves, volcanic eruptions. The forces of nature are constantly changing the planet Earth.

However, humans are also changing the Earth. Our activities have gradually become so extensive that they can measure up with nature itself. We move more soil than nature does. We make the planet warmer, we fell forests and wipe out species of animals. However, we also try to regenerate some of the nature we ourselves have displaced, for example by rewilding, where we move displaced animals back to their original habitats. According to researchers at AURA – the newly established interdisciplinary project at Aarhus University – humans have become a force of nature and this means we need to look at both nature and humans in a new way.

“Natural science has had a tendency towards putting human activity in brackets. When people have studied savannah ecosystems, for example, they’ve talked about lions and gazelles, but not about African farmers, veterinary surgeons, tourists and poachers, who also intervene in the ecosystem,” says Nils Bubandt, a professor of anthropology who is taking part in the project.

“On the other hand, human science traditionally has a tendency towards putting nature in brackets in its study of human culture, society and media,” he believes.

“We have a notion that nature and culture are radically different. In fact, the academic division of labour rests on this notion. But we live in a world where even the most remote wilderness is part of a nation state, covered by international conventions and permeated by economic interests. You can no longer find nature without humans, and one of the aims of the project is to study how we can consider nature in a new way,” he adds.

Human beings are not just culture beings
However, it is not just a matter of understanding nature in a new way. We also need to understand humans in a new way. Because if human cultural activities are a force of nature, this must involve a new understanding of what makes humans humans and what makes nature nature.

“The clear delineation between what is human and what is non-human is to a large extent breaking up,” says Nils Bubandt.

Focusing on and describing this break-up involves not only philosophers, but also biologists and anthropologists.

“Humans have become a climatic and geological force. To understand the consequences of this, the humanities and science must work closely together,” says Nils Bubandt, stating the reason for the interdisciplinary collaboration.

[Facts]
AURA
AURA (Aarhus University Research on the Anthropocene) focuses on the Anthropocene period: the era during which human activity is changing nature on a par with nature’s own forces. Headed by Niels Bohr Professor and Anthropologist Anna Tsing, the interdisciplinary project involves biologists, anthropologists, philosophers and others. With a launching date of 1 September 2013, the project will run until 2018. Read more about the Anthropocene project at AURA.