The goal of CARTA (UC San Diego’s Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny) is to explore and explain the origins of the human phenomenon. The most recent symposium, “Human Origins and Humanity’s Future: Past, Present and Future of the Anthropocene,” looks at the long and short-term impacts of human activity.
This latest series of programs offer a deep dive into the impact of humans on the planet and the consequences for the future of our species. It asks how a single species evolved the capacity to completely alter the surface of an entire planet and dominate its governing environmental and ecological processes. Hear from experts like Charles Kennel, director emeritus of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, who talks about the coming crisis of the Anthropocene and what can be done about it. Also, the University of Cambridge’s Martin Rees talks about how this century is the first in Earth’s history when the catastrophic threats to the entire planet can be induced by one species, humans.
Watch CARTA: Human Origins and Humanity’s Future: Past, Present, and Future of the Anthropocene.