Why now is the time to address humanity’s impact on the moon

• Every human civilization has looked to the stars and used celestial movements to measure time and find meaning.
• This insatiable thirst for knowledge combined with technological advancements have made it possible for us to dream of travelling in space.
• Six decades later, plans are ramping up for space tourism, missions to the moon and Mars, and mining on the moon.

The dawn of the Anthropocene

• There is a movement among the international geologic scientific community calling for a new epoch — the Anthropocene — reflecting the enormous extent to which human activity has altered the planet since the end of the Second World War.
• According to their research, the starting point for the Anthropocene has been identified as beginning in the 1950s, and the fallout from nuclear testing.
• The case for a lunar Anthropocene is interesting.

Damaging the Earth

• For humanities researchers and artists, the importance of the Anthropocene lies in the power the concept has to evoke human responsibility for bringing the Earth’s system to a tipping point.
• For millenia, most societies understood the importance of their relationship with the natural world for survival.
• Read more:
  'Killing' trees: How true environmental protection requires a revolution in how we talk about, and with, our forests

A lunar Anthropocene

• And now the Anthropocene, this age of human impact, is also arriving on the moon.
• An increasing number of moon missions and extracting resources from the moon could destroy lunar environments.
• If the intent is to issue a word of caution and pre-emptively shock and elicit a feeling of responsibility on the part of those actors likely to impact the moon’s surface, it may very well be the right time to name a lunar Anthropocene.

Christine Daigle receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. Liette Vasseur receives funding from the Exploration New Frontiers Research Funds. Jennifer Ellen Good does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.