Rob Nixon published the text, “From Slow Violence and Environmentalism of the Poor,” which indicates unconscionable societal subtleties of language and culture acting as methodical weapons of mass destruction upon our environment and citizenry.  Disasters and conflicts such as oil spills, deforestation, climate change, and the byproducts of warfare take place gradually and are often undetectable. Nixon’s work concentrates on the lack of attention we’ve guarded towards an abundance of predicaments, in contrast with public activism that doesn’t attack the root causes of “Slow violence.” Unfortunately, it is wrongfully dealt with due to infused capitalism and its overwhelming makeup of business, inequality, etc.

He unapologetically divulges in (Nixon, 2362), “Consequently, one of the most pressing challenges of our age is how to adjust our rapidly eroding attention spans to slow erosions of environmental justice.” The top-mentioned statement not only reinforced personal beliefs but added linkage to systemic problems faced by our people. The United States of America is unparalleled in its influence and means of production. Over time, the Union has developed and propagated technology for the growth of population, communication, enhancement of livelihood, and creation of new employment. Although these variables have produced positivity in the short term, they have influenced the discourse of which clothes to buy, food to purchase, technology for education, and more that hurt the planet. Raw materials have been siphoned for the pleasure of society. For example, Starbucks Corporation utilizes plastic cups/straws for consumer consumption and brand enhancement. Their beverages are easily accessible and often not recycled properly. Instead of reusing a bottle for replenishment, a subject’s dopamine rush from walking into an establishment will overwhelm them with a talk of beverages to an eventual filling of trash cans. Unfortunately, this repetitive act negatively affects our environment and the normality of the human species through the capitalistic wealth of sugar.

There is a scientific consensus that climate change is real and an enormous threat to our civilization and environment. However, activists and policymakers have treated the issue of black-and-white congruence and not reformed their approach to solving it. They all talk but don’t realize pen-to-paper/protests don’t necessarily solve the problem. Driving a car, turning off and on the light, flying commercial aircraft, cutting down trees, and warfare is a domino effects on our current state of sophistication. We’re unwilling to part ways with these activities being infused into our daily lives and culture. It is human nature to portray narcissism toward ourselves and be careless about future generations. If we don’t possess pensive thought on this issue, “Slow violence” will be visible with no point of return.

In “Anthropocene, Capitalocene, Plantationocene, Chthulucene: Making Kin”, Donna Hathaway analyzes the impact of human and non-human activity on the planet, implying that there may be a tipping point that changes the “game” of life on Earth for everyone and everything. She introduces several new names to describe different aspects of this change, including the Anthropocene, Plantationocene, and Capitalocene. Before defining what these words mean, it is important to identify and define the root “cene”. “Cene” comes from the Greek word “kainos” which means new or recent. It is commonly used in scientific terminology to refer to a specific geological time period or epoch. In geology, an epoch is a division of time that is longer than an age, but shorter than a period. Our current epoch is the Holoscene, which began about 11 700 years ago, following the last ice age.

The Anthropocene is a proposed geological epoch marked by significant human effect on Earth’s geology and ecosystems, notably in recent centuries. An example of the Anthropocene can be the increasd level of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere as a result of increased burning of fossil fuels and the industrial revolution.The Plantationocene is a phrase used to define the time period beginning in the 16th century and lasting till the present day, during which large-scale plantation agriculture arose as a defining element of global capitalism. The term “Plantationocene” alludes to the systematic exploitation of people and the environment for the benefit of a few, as well as the associated forms of power and inequality that still exist today. The widespread conversion of forests and other natural ecosystems into monoculture plantations for cash crops such as coffee, rubber, palm oil, and sugarcane is an example of the Plantationocene. This has resulted in major deforestation, soil erosion, biodiversity loss, and other environmental issues, notably in the world’s tropical regions. Slavery and colonialism’s historical legacies have also affected the social and economic institutions that drive these processes of land use change and environmental degradation. Some researchers refer to the current age as the Capitalocene, in which capitalism has become the main factor shaping human society and the environment. It refers to how capitalist systems modify the Earth’s ecosystems, frequently resulting in environmental deterioration and socioeconomic injustice.

While these are all interesting concepts, I was more curious about their relationship to literature. The notions of the Anthropocene, Plantationocene, and Capitalocene have all had an impact on literature and cultural studies in different ways. These concepts have been used by literary academics to evaluate and analyse the representation of human-environmental relations in literature. Novels, poetry, and other literary works, for example, can shed light on how human cultures have influenced the environment and how the environment has changed human experiences. While reading Hathaway’s piece, I found myself thinking of books that I’ve read that spoke on human-environmental relations. The one that instantly popped into my mind was “Do Androids Dream of Eletric Sheep?” by Philip K Dick. Do all books that talk on the Anthropocene, Plantationocene, and Capitalocen have to be science and noir fiction? Another example was “Walden” by David Henry Thoraeau. Was Hathaway’s new and exciting ideas doomed to be only associated with dystopian bleakness?