Many Anthropocenes or Just One? Caribbean Extinctions Over Time

• In Event: Making Latin American Landscapes in the ?-ocene

Abstract

Scholars argue that high rates of human-caused animal extinctions represent a key marker of the Anthropocene, among others such as increased C02 emissions caused by fossil-fueled industrialization; the worldwide spread of radioactive isotopes after 1945; and the proliferation of synthetic materials during the second half of the twentieth century. But human-driven extinctions have been messy, prolonged processes that unfolded across centuries (even millennia), characterized by oscillating rates of loss that differed in type and scope. Additionally, extinctions were regionally specific. From the perspective of anthropogenic extinctions, then, the Anthropocene looks less like a new epoch with a clear starting point and more like a series of regional waves of increased human impact divided by (sometimes long) periods of reduced human-driven environmental change, and, perhaps, some degree of ecosystem recomposition. This paper examines the Caribbean to explore this argument. In the early days of human colonization of the Caribbean and over a period of many centuries, indigenous cultures exterminated several species of animals, mostly mammals and birds. Extinctions then became rare until 1500, when the pace of extinction picked up dramatically with the arrival of Europeans and their livestock, rats, dogs, and cats. Additionally, the development of plantation economies tied to a nascent Atlantic capitalist economy led to widespread deforestation on most islands. The already impoverished mammalian and bird fauna of the Caribbean almost completely disappeared. No other region in the world suffered as many extinctions during the early modern period. By 1800, the Caribbean had one of the most depauperated faunas worldwide. The extended timescales and complex patterns of species loss in the Caribbean complicate the notion of a clearly demarcated and recent geological epoch of profound human impact.

Author

• Germán Vergara, Georgia Tech