News

'COP27 will be remembered as a failure – here’s what went wrong' - Professor Mark Maslin (Geography), Professor Priti Parikh (Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction), Professor Richard Taylor (Geography) and Dr Simon Chin-Yee (Political Science) in The Conversation

Cop27: UCL Anthropocene members and colleagues across SHS share their insights and reflections from the conference. Read contributions from Professor Lisa Vanhala (Political Science), Professor Mark Maslin (Geography), Professor Rodney Harrison (Archaeology) and Dr Fergus Green (Political Science) and more here.

A new study is published in Nature, entitled Hydroclimatic vulnerability of peat carbon in the central Congo Basin. Professor Simon Lewis (UCL Geography) senior author of this study, spoke to the Guardian, saying: “We know today that these peatlands are very close to that tipping point where they could release billions of tonnes of carbon to the atmosphere...We don’t know exactly how close but we do know that for the last couple of decades, droughts have been getting longer in the centre of the Congo basin. Our study brings a brutal warning from the past. This is an important message for world leaders gathering at the Cop27 climate talks.”

UCL Anthropocene Honorary Research Fellow Gaia Vince reviews The Climate Book by Greta Thunberg: " Greta Thunberg is already assured her place in history as the Jeanne d’Arc (or Cassandra) of our time. She’s been heroically battling the forces of climate inaction and denial since she stepped on to the global stage as a shy 15-year-old schoolkid “striking for the climate”. Anything written or orchestrated by her – like this appealingly produced anthology of essays – stands an excellent chance...This book is superb at explaining the urgency and importance of preventing climate change, but despite its heft it stops too soon."

Octagon Gallery exhibition Objects of the Misanthropocene opens in the Wilkins Building, running from 26 September 2022 to 6 February 2023. A series of events will run alongside the exhibition, more details of which can be found here.

The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity co-authored by David Wengrow (UCL Institute of Archaeology), with the late David Graeber, has been shortlisted for The Orwell Prize for Political Writing 2022. David Wengrow will discuss ideas from his book in two special events with UCL Anthropocene and the IAS on June 15 (panel discussion with Sonya Atalay, Luiz Costa, Paul Gilroy, Benedetta Rossi, and David Wengrow, chaired by Alpa Shah) and June 16 (a conversation with Amitav Ghosh and David Wengrow)

The Chemical Exposures workshop will take place in June, with a keynote opening lecture from Michelle Murphy (University of Toronto) on Thursday June 9th.

Call for papers: UCL Anthropocene, together with SHS Health, Mind and Society, is requesting contributions to the Chemical Exposures workshop in June. Please see here for more information on how to propose a paper, conversation or interactive session. Deadline: April 22nd, 2022

UCL Anthropocene launches new COP26 blog series, with members across History, Archaeology, Geography, Science and Technology Studies, Anthropology, Art and more answer the question of: 'What should be happening at COP26 and beyond?'

UCL Professor of Comparative Archaeology David Wengrow, co-author of The Dawn of Everything with David Graeber, writes 'Humanity is not trapped in a deadly game with the Earth – there are ways out' in the Observer as COP26 gets underway

UCL Geography's Prof. Simon Lewis writes Guardian column 'Let’s say it without flinching: the fossil fuel industry is destroying our future' in response to IPCC climate report

UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report ‘wake-up call for all governments to take climate change seriously’

UCL’s Archaeology South-East launches SHS Dean’s Fund supported project PalaeoLondon, to bring the deep past of London alive for school children and the wider communities

Prof. Andrew Barry co-authors 'A new public health order: engineering vaccine equity' in KCL's series of essays on how we can Build Back Better Together

UCL Anthropocene, the Sarah Parker Remond Centre, Institute of Advanced studies and Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, Kings, will run a two-day workshop on Engineering Global Vaccine Equity

Edward Christie (History of Art) reflects on the Cultural Ecology series as it comes to a close after eight events

Dr Simon Turner (Geography) appears on the Guardian podcast to discuss: ‘Have we entered the Anthropocene – a new epoch in Earth’s history?’

Prof. Mark Maslin (Geography) publishes How to Save Our Planet: The Facts

Dr Sahra Gibbon (Anthropology) and Dr Jennie Gamlin (Institute for Global Health) granted Wellcome Trust Discretionary Award for their project on Embodied Inequalities of the Anthropocene

Prof Dorian Fuller (Archaeology) publishes 'People have shaped most of terrestrial nature for at least 12,000 years' in PNAS

Dr Hannah Knox publishes Thinking Like A Climate: Governing a City in Times of Environmental Change

Artist Simon Faithfull launches new exhibition 'Memories From The Future' at Galerie Polaris in Paris.

August 2020

The online Objects of the Misanthropocene exhibition is now live with Dean Sully on the Curatorial Team.

Prof. Andrew Barry publishes 'Unsustainable transition? Hydropower and the post-Covid recovery in Georgia' in openDemocracy

Dr. Jerome Lewis publishes 'How "Sustainable" Development Ravaged the Congo Basin' in Scientific American journal. 

UCL Medical Anthropology launches 'Co-existing with Covid-19: Moving into the Post-Pandemic World with the Social Sciences' blog series.

UCL launches 'Coronavirus: The Whole Story' podcast series.

Institute of Advanced Studies launches 'Life in the Time of Coronavirus' podcast series.

Prof. Katherine Homewood publishes 'Women, Wellbeing and Wildlife Management Areas' in the Journal of Peasant Studies.

UCL Medical Anthropology launches 'Consciously Quarantined' blog series.

Dr. Colin Sterling publishes 'Critical Heritage and the Posthumanities: Problems and Prospects' in International Journal of Heritage Studies.