After preservation? Dynamic nature in the Anthropocene

Abstract

We have entered the first century in 45 million centuries of life on Earth in which one species can jeopardize the planet's future. Since Galileo, Earth seemed a minor planet, lost in the stars. Since Darwin, humans have come late and last on this lonely planet. Today, on our home planet at least, we are putting these once de-centered humans back at the center. This is the Anthropocene epoch, and this high profile discourse comes to showcase the expanding human empire. Humans will manage the planet. We need to figure, perhaps re-figure conservation in this novel future in which we celebrate a new epoch and name it after ourselves.