According to many scientists and historians, we have entered a new historical period: the age of the Anthropocene. For the first time in history, as a result of climate change, humans are altering the makeup of planet Earth. In this episode of Vis A Vis, history professor François Hartog and Frédérique Aït-Touati, historian of modern science, discuss the consequences of these transformations. The use of fossil fuels and the impact of global warming are generating irreversible changes in our planet’s history. Can awareness of this radical shift in history provide us with the tools we need to avert climate catastrophe and change the course we are engaged on?
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François Hartog is a professor emeritus at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales in Paris. He is noted for his “regimes of historicity” theory as well as his analyses of presentism and the contemporary experience of time.
Frédérique Aït-Touati is a historian of literature and modern science and a theater director. Her research focuses on the narratives and aesthetics of the Anthropocene, particularly in theater and cartography.