CUERE Seminar: Dr. Erle Ellis, UMBC

Abstract 

It is no longer possible to understand or predict Earth’s future without understanding why humans, alone among species, gained the capacity to transform an entire planet, and why different human societies transform ecology in so many different ways. Anthroecology theory aims to explain this unprecedented transformation of Earth’s ecology as the product of sociocultural niche construction, an evolutionary process combining ecosystem engineering, cultural evolution and social change. What are the prospects for humanity and nature on a planet ever more rapidly and completely reshaped by human societies? The challenges are unprecedented and there is no going back. Yet it is possible that massive globalization of human societies and their support systems might also become the greatest planetary opportunities to create better outcomes for both humanity and non-human nature.