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Anthropocene
There are opposing views on the beginning of anthropocene. Anna Tsing suggests that anthropocene does not start with human beings but rather with the emergence of the economic system known as capitalism. The inability to create a consensus on the origins of anthropocene exists across disciplines, even though it is within geology that designations of time are usually made about the planet. The effects of anthropocene move well beyond geology and so the implications outlined by other disciplines are of importance to take into account. Lewis and Maslin pinpoint one reason for the lack of consensus, as being the fear of normalizing the concept. If the start of anthropocene is said to be earlier than the industrial revolution or modern capitalism, it portrays it as something normal in effect lessening the urgency, and gravity that is currently associated with global warming. On the other hand if anthropocene is agreed to have started during the time of the Industrial Revolution, the countries prominent during the industrial era may be attributed responsibility due to the pollution they have created. Assigning responsibility for what is a global issue to only a few, would not help to solve the problem. As such the implication of defining the beginning of anthropocene go well beyond a minor disagreement. Both proposed origins of anthropocene have possible negative effects that would get in the way of remedying the situation currently threatening the planet, which is climate change.

Alterlife
Alterlife is a way to recognize the effect of anthropocene in terms of climate change and how this impacts all living things. However much like anthropocene it is hard to say when alterlife began. What can be observed is the increased visibility of alterlife through anthropocene. Alterlife has become a part of the existence of every human being on earth. Michelle Murphy explains how chemical pollutants have become visible in the urine, blood and breast milk of humans all over the world. This age of anthropocene is not only showing effects in our surroundings but also in our bodies. Shapiro also explains how animals act as warning sign to a certain extent, due to them usually being symptomatic first. He goes on to illustrate the way people in proximity to harmful substances slowly attune to their surroundings. This creates an issue where in, by the time people are recognizing the adverse effects of the chemicals they are being exposed to, their exposure has already reached critical peaks. Murphy emphasizes the way chemical exposures are studied by looking at those that have experienced the harmful effects. This highlights the way people gain information by looking at situations where harm has already occurred, instead of having the foresight to make sure the damaging effects never happened in the first place.

Capitalocene
Capitalocene has emerged as a word that is meant to encompass the relationship that capitalism has with the epoch that represents our current times. Moore explains the way in which capitalism has had a history of violence towards nature, relentlessly collecting resources to keep up with the demands of the economic system. Humans are also implicated in this history because capitalism was of human invention. This machine of human invention poses a threat to humans as well as nature because much like nature humans have become resources as well. The ideas surrounding  the way those at the head of capitalistic endeavours view society and nature, can help to provide needed insight into the function of capitalism and how it has come to be implicated in anthropocene. Moore explains that those in charge capitalistic business practices see things in terms of prices, however the relationships that exist between society and nature cannot be communicated in monetary value. This results in an oversight that does not take into account a value of nature that is not determined by prices. Capitalocene is then a cycle that has complexities which demands for those in power to conceptualize the relationship between nature and society through a lens not influenced by capital.

Anna Tsing also explains that anthropocene being linked to modern capitalism presents layers of entanglement that provide further complexities. One such complexity being the ideas associated with capitalism. Capitalism is tied to the idea of progress thus presenting it in a light that speaks to its success as an economic system. Linking capitalism to progress is a way to create a narrative that this economic system is of benefit to people and therefore desirable. Tsing emphasizes the need to understand the way in which concepts such as capitalism require us to challenge our ways of thinking. In challenging frameworks and ideologies embedded in our understanding of concepts such as capitalism the players at work become visible and so our involvement is easier to take note of.

Critiques of Anthropocene
The term anthropocene is relatively new and most likely unfamiliar to the masses, because of its recent conceptualization it can fall victim to some contradictions. Anna Tsing illustrates the way the term has come to mean the triumph of humans to some, due to its ideas of human dominance over the earth. However to others it means the opposite, a circumstance occurring without planning or intention. In both perspectives there seems to be the semblance of agreement in that humans have altered the earth to a extreme extent.

There are those who do not agree with the way anthropocene frames the relationship between humans and nature. Crist suggests that the current discourses surrounding anthropocene rationalize the affects humans have had on the biosphere more than they challenge the dominating relationship humans have with nature. As well Moore highlights the way that anthropocene calls attention towards the situation at hand however does not provide great insight into how this situation came to be. Thus anthropocene requires more research to be conducted on causes and ultimately possible solutions.