A morning with David Farrier

From microbes frozen in Antarctic permafrost to layers of plastic in the depths of oceans, to oil drilling, everything that happens on the planet leaves an imprint, and is stored and recorded in its substrates. In recent centuries, the unprecedented impact of human activity has opened up another stage of life on Earth, the Anthropocene, which is giving rise to a new generation of fossils that future generations will study to understand our present. What story will emerge from the traces we leave today in the form of plastic remains, pesticides, nuclear waste, bleached coral, and skyscrapers rising from the sea? David Farrier suggests that we could imagine our life as the fossils it will make, and thus become aware of the indelible traces we leave as a legacy for future generations as a necessary step if we are to question and rethink our present way of life.

The session has a pedagogical dossier (in Catalan) so that the students can work on the contents beforehand in the classroom and thus make the most out of the lecture.