In her essay, Professor Lawrence explains the neoliberal governmental model and the regulatory techniques it employs and illustrates the rise of neoliberal governance by demonstrating how it has come to the forefront of environmental policymaking. She then undertakes e a brief analysis of environmental policy documents from the European Union (EU), and she will then explore how the notion of the Anthropocene is well suited for assimilation into the neoliberal governmental paradigm. Finally, she concludes by arguing that truly rethinking the human relationship with Earth systems will require much more than simply recognizing our role in shaping it: it will require a fundamental reorganization of our logic of government. The starting point of this analysis is that scholars from geography to climatology, from history to sociology have begun to embrace the idea that human intervention has significantly altered Earth systems: the Anthropocene terminology makes clear that today we live in a world where human activity is the most important factor influencing Earth systems. As such, it also suggests that there is a need for human individuals and societies to shift our understandings of how we relate to and are responsible for, our collective ecological future. Despite its increasing popularity, however, the notion of the Anthropocene has yet to make its way into the minds of most lawyers, legal bureaucracies, and legal scholars. The crucial question is: what happens when the idea of the Anthropocene does begin to enter the law? Overall, the message conveyed here is that if there is any hope for truly rethinking the human relationship with the planet, therefore, it will require much more than simple recognition of our role in shaping it: it will require a concerted resistance to and reimagination of our logic of government. The logic of neoliberalism is not one of the limits to growth, but rather of an extended control. It is not one of expanded consciousness, but rather one of reducing our gaze to what can be recognized and accounted for by expert managers. The Anthropocene may indeed, as some have suggested, offer a platform for imagining a new human social order. However, if it is truly to do so, it will have to break free of and avoid being co-opted by a political force that has gained increasing control over our human imagination: neoliberal management.
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