ABSTRACT

The plot of Interstellar serves as an excellent backdrop to address the Anthropocene and the politics of the Apocalypse. Global environmental problems such as climate change, and biodiversity loss are framed as in need of extraordinary measures that, if not taken promptly, may lead to an apocalyptic and catastrophic scenario. The geological aspect of the Anthropocene presents its thesis as an inescapable moment in space/time in which people have, inadvertently, ‘ended up’. The ‘Bad Anthropocene’ narrative is built around the concept of ‘Planetary Boundaries’ which diversely supports the idea of ‘returning to a stable condition’ and ‘a safe operating space for humanity’, or in other words, the idea of ‘turning back the clock’ to the selectively stable conditions of a ‘Holocene 2.0’. Geopower can be considered as a combination of technocratic environmental interventions, geo-knowledge of imperial ecologies, Earth System Sciences and geoengineering. Narratives about the Apocalypse are not new.