Experiments in the Anthropocene: Climate Change and History in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica

摘要

This essay suggests thatthe McMurdo Dry Valleys in East Antarctica offer a useful place for thinking about the relationships between climate change and environmental history. The Dry Valleys have become an important site for climate change research over the past fifty years, and they are now an important case study forthe ecological consequences of a warming planet. The atmospheric chemist Paul Crutzen has suggested the term Anthropocene to describe how humans have created a distinctive geological epoch through anthropogenic climate change and other large-scale environmental impacts. The history of the McMurdo Dry Valleys offers a useful place to "experiment" with this idea and think about its implications. In particular, the short and relatively simple history of this unique region both encourages and facilitates a focus on the historical interactions between human activities, human perceptions, and the material environment, which are key to understanding the relationships between climate change and environmental history.