The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet

Central to Green’s life is the city of Indianapolis, Indiana, where he and his family live. The city gets its own chapter and several other mentions in the book. Green initially disliked it for its American averageness. Soon, though, he discovered a deep and abiding sense of neighborhood and community friendship, which are attributes he values highly. Indianapolis is known for its average-American ways, and his transition from contempt to affection for the city mirrors his struggle to accept the US itself as a place and a people worthy of love and admiration.

Through Indianapolis, Green nevertheless feels free to deplore, and warn against, many of America’s social and cultural attributes, including its obsession with grass lawns, its air and water pollution, its overdone capitalism, and its overwrought individualism: “To fall in love with the world isn’t to ignore or overlook suffering” (7). Leavening his criticisms is an affection for a people who, despite their flaws, do wonderful things. He hopes and believes that they can and will rise to the challenge of fixing the problems that result from modern life, especially environmental threats. He sees in Indianapolis a microcosm of that process.