The Antibiocene – towards an eco-social analysis of humanity's antimicrobial footprint

Over eight decades of mass antimicrobial exposures have changed microbial populations and genes at a global level. This thought piece argues that adequately responding to the anthropogenic transformation of the microbial commons requires reframing antimicrobial resistance (AMR) as the pheno- and genotypic signal of a new geological era – an Anti-biocene. Thinking through the multiple spatiotemporal, biological, and social scales of this Antibiocene opens important perspectives on the long-term goals of (anti)microbial stewardship, the injustices connected with unequal antimicrobial exposures, and the scale of necessary changes to health, food production, and waste disposal systems. Conceptualising AMR within an Antibiocene also necessitates shifting the political gaze from the clinic and sites of food production to the hitherto neglected environmental domain of One Health, whose terrestrial and aquatic milieus act as crucial reservoirs for antimicrobial substances, antimicrobial resistance genes, and resistant organisms. Finally, disentangling the human and non-human dimensions of the Antibiocene requires working across the humanities, social-, environmental, and biomedical sciences. The thought piece ends by proposing comparative research on particularly contaminated sites as a promising way of reconstructing the microbial, biochemical, and societal fallouts of chronic antimicrobial exposures as well as already existing societal adaptations. Resulting findings will provide orientation for emerging debates on the preservation of our microbial commons and the development of new forms of ‘eubiotic governance’.

Claas Kirchhelle