Mapping the End of the World
In Cattle Decapitation's Post-Anthropocene Map, white polar ice has been replaced by an expanse of open ocean the color of stagnant rust. Dr. Karen Frey is a geographer—specifically, a polar scientist who studies the effects of climate change on Arctic sea ice. Travis Ryan is the lead singer of one of the most extreme metal bands of the modern era, the aptly named Cattle Decapitation. While Dr. Frey spends her field seasons on scientific expeditions to the northern oceans—some of the most unforgiving environments on the globe—Travis Ryan tours the world with a band known as much for its brutal sound as for its radical political messages.
Despite these differences, the scientist and the frontman have found themselves pursuing parallel intellectual challenges, albeit from distinct perspectives. Using different tools, and through different media, both seek to map the realities of climate change and in so doing, communicate the magnitude and urgency of the global climate crisis.
For the past several decades, both scientists and artists have done their part to sound the alarm about a looming socio-ecological catastrophe. This is the age of the Anthropocene, a new epoch defined by the presence of human activities in the geological record. Academic debates about nomenclature aside, the notion of the Anthropocene is powerful: it implicates humans directly in the cascading impacts of global climate change. And while neither the sciences nor the humanities offer simple solutions to the complex challenges facing humanity and the planet, both fields have an essential part to play in achieving the kind of social and political changes necessary to avoid a dystopian future of our own making.
In early December, I met with Dr. Frey in her office at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, where I am a graduate student in the Department of Geography. It was a cold day, and bundled-up queues of students shuffled to class along semi-plowed
