15032-2088-Combined.3d Pages: [1–270] Date: [July 12, 2018] Time: [12:26] 2 A natural history for the 21st century Rethinking the Anthropocene narrative with Arendt and Adorno Maike Weißpflug Introduction In a heavily disputed article for The New Yorker, the American novelist Jonathan Franzen addressed an ethical dilemma in the Anthropocene: Do we have to choose between global climate protection and local nature conservation? The text also points to the important question of how we tell the narrative of the Anthropocene. As temperatures continue to rise due to human activities, the approaches to climate change mitigation often tend to be as abstract or ‘grand’ as the problem itself, particularly the visions of climate engineering. Accordingly, the scale at which these changes are taking place seems simply too large to feel connected to or even responsible for, as an individual or as a society. Classical nature conser- vation policies, by contrast, correspond to a Franciscan ethic: “you’re helping something you love, something right in front of you, and you can see the results” (Franzen 2015). Franzen was strongly criticised for prioritising local nature conservation above climate action, and he revoked his statement in the light of Trump’ s presidency, saying it was a mistake to turn both against each other (Franzen 2017). Yet, how do we tell the story of the Anthropocene, and how does it come tolife as a narrative, reframing the way humans relate to the Earth? Why is how we tell the Anthropocene’ s story important? These questions frame my inquiry and pro- posal to dig deeper into the history, meaning and normative dimensions of the Anthropocene. First, I argue that the term Anthropocene – although it also has been discussed as a purely scientific geological concept – has been framed as a normative narra- tive from the very beginning, starting with the original article by Paul Crutzen and Eugene Stoermer (2000). However, in these texts, the Anthropocene narrative has been told from the abstract point of view Jonathan Franzen calls ‘eschatological’– from an ‘end of the world’ or god-like perspective. Detached from everyday actions and real-world experiences, this kind of ‘grand’ storytelling, however, seems to be utterly unhelpful to rethink our relation to and responsibility for the natural world. In a second step, I propose to rethink the Anthropocene narrative by reading two 20th century philosophers, Hannah Arendt and Theodor W. Adorno. Both offer a 15