Hope, Concrete Utopia, and the Anthropocene

A characteristic feature of the Anthropocene is that humanity has become a force capable of altering fundamental planetary systems. A relative equilibrium of planetary systems in which humans have flourished is now under stress due to land use, fossil fuel extraction and burning, chemical pollution, weapons testing and other human activities. Some of these activities, such as energy use, have been responsible for very significant human development gains and great progress in eradicating poverty, but unwittingly they have also produced pressures on planetary boundaries. Are there reasons to hope that continued progress in human development promotion but on sustainable basis is possible? The idea of a concrete utopia, as discussed by Ernst Bloch, is of desirable improvement on present conditions, but an improvement that has a measure of realism because it could be produced by historical and present tendencies. The paper discusses the idea of sustainable prosperity as a possible concrete utopia, the object of hope for the Anthropocene.