Taming Gaia 2.0: Earth system law in the ruptured Anthropocene

If the Anthropocene is a rupture in planetary history, what does it mean for international environmental law? When the Earth System crosses irreversible tipping points and begins a forceful, nonlinear transformation into a hostile state which I call the ruptured Anthropocene, the concept of protecting the global environment from humans would lose its meaning. Not only the dichotomy between humans and nature becomes irrelevant, but the environment itself will no longer exist as an object for protection. I argue that, for international environmental law to stay relevant in the ruptured Anthropocene, it needs to shift away from its traditional focus on restoring the planetary past, and instead play an active role in the making of planetary futures. Its new purpose will need to be active planetary stewardship, whereby humans add self-awareness for deliberate self-regulation of the Earth System. Such an attempt at ‘taming’ the so-called Gaia 2.0 will, however, create winners and losers, and the new form of law will have to address fundamental questions of justice on a planetary scale. Building on the concept of earth system law emerging in the earth system governance literature, I draw the contours of international environmental law 2.0 for the ruptured Anthropocene and discuss the challenges of instituting active planetary stewardship.

Unacceptable Agency

The Earth System Governance Project is the largest scholarly body in the world devoted to articulating governance of the Earth’s systems. It recently published a “Harvesting Initiative” looking back on the first iteration of its Scientific Plan. This paper contributes to the decolonial and constructive critique of the theory of agency in that Initiative and argues that it displays “fragmentary coloniality” especially around problematic authority relations in governance. By turning to work on “worlding,” the paper argues for radicalizing questions of authority, leading us to focus not on agency but on moral relationships—work for a sequel to this paper.

Start the Earth System Governance that Integrates “Climate-Altering Technologies”

Addressing climate emergencies requires a radical social change, and an “earth system” governance approach that combines different factors (including technologies that affect climate). As the Paris Agreement has been reached for four years and came into force for three years, there is a growing recognition that the global average temperature rise cannot be limited to 1.5–2∘C only by emissions reduction or existing carbon removal measures. The reason is that the world has not taken enough actions to deal with the crisis. As reported by IPCC (2018), hundreds of millions of people worldwide are already experiencing the harsh consequences of climate change, from storms to floods, to heatwaves and droughts [IPCC. 2018. “International Panel on Climate Change Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 Degrees.” https://www.ipcc.ch/sr15 (accessed November 5, 2019)]. According to Spratt and Dunlop (2019), as the climate change intensifies, all sectors of society have realized the need to avoid the risks brought by climate change and to deal with the severe disasters that already exist [Spratt, David, and Ian Dunlop. 2019. “Existential Climate-related Security Risk: A Scenario Approach.” https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/148cb0b2c0c79dc4344b279bcf2365336ff23b.pdf (accessed November 5, 2019)]. This raises some profound questions. For instances, should people consider a new responsive measure that is compatible with the natural system which sustains life on the earth, and within the limits of the earth’s tolerance? What forms of decision-making might we need, to help us make the smart collective choices needed for a world where no risk-free options remain? Are familiar governance and decision-making processes still suitable for the goals? Who will make the decisions to promote this transformation? If people really want to change the way they make decisions, they may need to create new forms of governance and decide how this transformation begins and which authority is subject to.