The Anthropocene and Geography III: Future Directions

This is the last of three papers that explore the relevance of 'the Anthropocene' (and the related idea of 'planetary boundaries') to present and future research in Geography. The first paper (The Anthropocene and Geography I: The back story) summarised the origins and evolution of the proposition that the Holocene has ended. The second paper (The Anthropocene and Geography II: Current contributions) then mapped-out the relatively few, but varied, contributions that geographers have so far made to assessing or advancing this proposition. This final instalment looks ahead. It offers readers informed speculation on how future discussions of the Anthropocene might take shape in Geography. These discussions may matter for a great many others besides geographers in the years ahead. Given their epochal meanings and enormous implications for humans, the Anthropocene and planetary boundaries ideas stand to become societal keywords that, along with some other collateral terms, might organise debate and action about one of the greatest human questions, namely: 'how should we live?'.