Earth as an event

Abstract

In this article, we explore Gilles Deleuze’s concept of the “event” to think about the Earth and the anthropogenic transformations that, impacting on ecological processes, configure what has been called a “global ecological collapse.” If, through the scale of such transformations, we realize that the Earth has never consisted of a finished and inert environment – an image prevalent at least since modernity – we propose that the concept of the event allows us to envision other images of the Earth. The concept not only allows us to analyze the processuality of the dynamics that make the Earth itself, but also enables us to grasp why we need a new political understanding (or cosmopolitical, to use Isabelle Stengers’ concept) for reframing the relations between humans and non-humans, nature and culture, individuals and their environment. We conclude our analysis by discussing some of the ethical and political consequences that derive from this consideration of the Earth as an event.