Navigating alternative framings of human-environment interactions: Variations on the theme of 'Finding Nemo'

Wide agreement exists that the “Anthropocene” demands new forms of engagement and responses to achieve sustainability, but different fields suggest quite different approaches. In this communication, we set out four perspectives that we argue have fundamentally different framings of the “problem” of the Anthropocene, and consequently point to very different responses to achieving sustainability. These four fields include: the eco-modernist perspective, the planetary stewardship paradigm, the pathways to sustainability approach, and the critical post-humanist paradigm. We suggest that a deeper underlying framing which can help integrate aspects of these four perspectives is an understanding of the “Anthropocene as responsibility”. We argue that from this perspective it becomes possible to engage with an ethics of responsibility that comes with being human and acting on the planet, in the face of an uncertain and unknowable future.