Despite the stark differences in the examples and case studies employed, some common threads emerged that underpin how the Anthropocene concept can be filtered as it permeates through the world of research into the broader context of humanity.

The two introductory talks by instructors Marco Armiero and Amita Baviskar demonstrated just how disparate are the ways in which different groups within society view the Anthropocene. Marco Armiero explored the impact of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans, a city in the United States. The scientific perspective of the Anthropocene focuses on the fact that hurricanes are becoming more intense as the climate system warms, increasing the risk of catastrophic impacts. How people experience the impact, however, differs starkly depending on the wealth, power, and influence of different groups in New Orleans. This on-the-ground filtering greatly influenced the experiences of the residents of the city, who ranged from the wealthy who could protect their properties to the poor who lost everything, sometimes even their lives.

Issues of power, influence, urban‒rural, poverty, and culture came out strongly in Amita Baviskar’s scene-setter on the construction of the Sardar Sarovar gravity dam on the Narmada River in central India. The scientific filter tends to color the project favorably, because generating electricity hydroelectrically emits zero carbon dioxide and is seen as part of the solution for repairing the destabilizing climate. However, the question of who decides and who benefits from such a scheme strongly influences how various groups react to it—again, it is the poorer and less powerful groups in society who suffer from even the well-meaning projects designed to deal with the Anthropocene.

The case studies presented by the participants used various approaches to tease out how different individuals and groups across societies “filter”—that is, react differently to and are diversely affected by—the Anthropocene. A common theme among all the case studies is that most people the world over will experience the Anthropocene as something that influences risks, constraints, and opportunities that already exist in their lives; indeed, many will be unaware that a shift in their planetary life-support system is now beginning to influence their everyday lives in a local fashion.

Water, which is essential to life—central to human cultures and livelihoods as it is to the natural world—is now changing, everywhere, in very many ways, as the Anthropocene accelerates. Ice is melting, sea levels are rising, and it is raining harder more often. The patterns of liquid water across the landscapes of the planet and along the coastlines are changing. There is no better element to use than water for examining how people are filtering the Anthropocene.

In many countries of the African continent, access to enough good-quality water has long been a challenge. The Anthropocene is exacerbating this problem in many regions. One case study focused on Lake Chad, a central feature in the livelihoods and economies of several countries that border the dwindling lake. Local and regional pressures have always been a challenge and have triggered adaptive strategies, but the new stress of diminishing rainfall in the Anthropocene is deepening this challenge.

The Anthropocene is causing the opposite problem in the low-lying Maldive Islands south of the Indian subcontinent: too much water. Warming oceans and melting ice from far away are slowly inundating their homeland, posing an existential threat. Even here, however, filtering the Anthropocene is complex. Who is responsible for the Anthropocene? Is all of humanity to blame or only part of it? When did the Anthropocene start, and why? What is driving the Anthropocene?

The final case study—“Plastic and Surrogacy”—is directed at the most fundamental and important features of human life: relationships and families. The technosphere, the feature of human societies that some would argue is the major driver of the Anthropocene, produces a wide range of novel entities—chemicals, materials, and forms of energy that are new to the Earth system. One novel chemical type, “endocrine disruptors,” has the potential to wreak havoc on the human reproductive system. The implications of this are vast, and this fascinating case study is perhaps the most profound example of how we now have to filter the Anthropocene at the most fundamental level of our existence on the planet.