Becoming Animal during the Sixth Mass Extinction of the Anthropocene: The Naturalist-Artist Vivian Van Blerk

Amidst this sixth age of mass extinction of the Anthropocene, extreme weather conditions and unnatural disasters have been fuelled continually by climate change. With sea-levels constantly rising, tropical cyclones have increasingly erupted bringing record-breaking rainfalls and the prevalence of catastrophic flooding reaping untold devastation. With the concentration of greenhouse gases increasing, overwhelming fires unleashed by global warming and intense heatwaves have wiped out entire regions. With the worst mammal extinction rates on planet Earth recorded, 126 species of plants and animals having vanished in just over 200 years with 383 species classified as endangered or identified as surviving precariously on offshore islands. Due to deep-ocean trawling even the Blobfish, voted the World’s Ugliest Animal and likened to Donald Trump, has become an endangered species. Such places as South Africa and Johannesburg, where Vivian Van Blerk lived until leaving university and where most of his family remain, have proven particularly vulnerable.