The Anthropocenes Research Group (ARG) at Newcastle University explores sustainable, transdisciplinary responses to the intensifying challenges of global socioecological change. Our work is rooted in what we call the Newcastle Approach—a dialectical method for examining human-environment relationships, drawing on insights from the natural and social sciences, the arts, and the humanities.

While the Anthropocene is not an officially recognised geological epoch, it offers a powerful conceptual lens for understanding the present and imagining the future, marked by the complex entanglement of natural and human-driven processes. In a world of over 8 billion people, we question the idea of a singular Anthropocene. Instead, we argue for multiple Anthropocenes, shaped by people’s differing access to resources, vulnerabilities, and aspirations.

Importantly, not all humans have contributed equally to environmental degradation. Certain individuals, communities, and industries bear significantly greater responsibility than others. We therefore approach the Anthropocene with a critical ethical lens, recognising the need to account for diverse perspectives—human and non-human—and to interrogate the consequences of centring the human as the primary agent of planetary change.