Ironies of the Anthropocene

This chapter focuses on some of the communicative and situational ironies posed by the social phenomenon of the Anthropocene. There are numerous ironies embedded in the Anthropocene, including what B. Szerszynski calls ‘communicative ironies’ where ‘the overt, surface meaning of the communication is in tension with the actual meaning intended to be communicated’. A particularly ‘ferocious’ form of irony is satire and a host of it has arisen in response to the Anthropocene and its component issues such as climate change. Situational irony is implicit in the Frank series in that the series is premised on the disjuncture between Earnest’s title as the ‘Government Environment Spokesperson’ and his actual anti-environment attitude. Some scholars and environmental activists are increasingly tackling environmental inaction with a more forthright, earnest and public form of irony of the sort that Szerszynski refers to as ‘situational irony’, the gap between expected or intended and actual situations that are ‘inherent within unsustainable and unjust cultural practices’.