Co-creating the Symbiocene

Abstract

‘Co-creating the Symbiocene’ recognises that human pressures will continue to exert significant influence on global ecosystems, much as they have already shaped the Anthropocene. A more comprehensive set of ‘artificial selection’ criteria is required to direct human decision-making on an increasingly symbiotic basis with the natural processes and ‘natural selection’ forces that shaped natural systems throughout the Holocene. This would constitute a new synergistic and sustainable epoch—the Symbiocene—with human pressures increasingly sympathetic with natural processes and capacities. A framework for decision-making to achieve this is presented, with worked examples spanning policy areas. All of us exert unique influences through our day-to-day choices and actions, be they wilful or inadvertent, all of which shape the kind of future we are co-creating.