This Berliner uses the new scientific concept of "Anthropocene age", to argue for a radically different orientation toward nature.
In the Anthropocene, there is no longer an "inside" and an "outside", no alien, antagonistic nature with which humans are faced. The environment becomes the "invironment", something with which humans are existentially interwoven. This is why it is far from sufficient to create "nature reserves" on a small percentage of the Earth’s land surface. Instead, we have to consider whether civilisation itself can act and perform within nature, with technologies that don’t act as parasites and destroy, but enrich the living world.In other words, we humans are in the very web of life on planet Earth, and we must now integrate our existence with the Earth's ecosystems in such a way as to preserve our place in it. However after constructing this radical vision, he argues that we need only to make adaptations to our economy and technology to integrate ourselves with nature! How reassuring (to capitalists) to know that capitalism which is based on exploitation of workers and the environment can be "adapted" to this new reality! And the remainder of the article continues this train of thought by declaring that these adjustments are already happening in his hometown of Berlin.
In such a world we can no longer speak of "nature" and "culture" as two separate spheres.
This is a classic example of how liberal media handle the growing acknowledgement by the ruling class that a dramatic conflict exists for capitalism in the form of climate destabilization. It serves to reassure people that everything is under control--just trust the authorities.
If instead of being reassured and you want to face the hard truths of the insolubility of capitalism and survival, I advise you to watch the film "The Crisis of Civilization" by Nafeez Ahmed which I posted last September.
