The Anthropocene brings up a profound ecological diagnosis: Man has changed the entire earth system so seriously that we have to start from a new geological era. Climate change, loss of species, the disruption of important material cycles, ocean acidification, desertification and deforestation, omnipresent toxins are just a few dimensions of this profound change. In view of this fact, today's societies are faced with completely new questions: What does it mean to understand man as a geological force? What is nature when it is influenced and shaped by humans worldwide? And how can politics face this global problem? This book explores the key questions and challenges that the Anthropocene poses.