工业革命以来，人类的科技水平不断进步，生产力飞速发展，改造自然的能力与日俱增，有鉴于此，一些自然科学家提出，目前人类已经超越了自然，成为主导地质变化的重要力量，我们步入了“人类世”。但在资本逻辑的主导下，改造自然能力的提升往往意味着全球环境破坏的加剧，在“一切照旧”的情况下，世界正在步入一个生物多样性匮乏和不稳定的阶段。生态马克思主义者对人类世的环境危机进行了深入的剖析，作为其中的代表人物，福斯特形成了自己的人类世思想。全球环境危机日益加剧、世界各地环境保护运动蓬勃兴起、人类世成为热点话题是福斯特提出人类世思想的重要背景，在这一过程中，他还吸收了马克思恩格斯的生态思想、自然科学尤其是地质学的研究成果，以及借鉴了同时代生态马克思主义者的研究进展。福斯特认为，人类世起源于1950年代，这一时期二战结束，资本主义进入了全球垄断时代。用于判定人类世的标志是放射性元素的全球扩散以及合成材料（主要是塑料）在地层中的沉积，这些物质在地球的土壤、冰川当中留下了永久性的记录，并可以在数千年中被检测到。人类世的第一个阶段是“资本期”，资本主义在这一时期把生态危机拓展到了全球，人类陷入了“生态毁灭还是生态革命”的抉择当中；人类世的第二个阶段是“共产期”，人类需要改变以资本积累为主要目的的生产系统，与地球建立一种全新的物质-环境关系。大加速、超越行星边界、“帝国式生活方式”的盛行是人类世的环境后果。人类世生态危机的成因是资本的增殖与扩张本性，以及资本主义对化石燃料的深度依赖。为了应对这一危机，福斯特提出了生态革命的思想，革命主体是环境无产阶级，革命方式是微观斗争，革命主要发生在全球南方，未来社会是生态存续的社会主义。福斯特把中国的生态文明建设视为应对人类世环境危机的现实方案，认为生态文明的理念与中国的传统文化具有天然亲和性，中国在生态文明建设领域做出的贡献“可以看作是献给世界的最大礼物”。
Since the Industrial Revolution, mankind‘s scientific and technological level has continued to advance, productivity has developed rapidly, and the ability to transform nature has increased day by day. In view of this, some natural scientists have suggested that mankind has now surpassed nature and has become an important force in dominating geological change, and that we have entered the "Anthropocene". However, under the logic of capital, the increased ability to transform nature often means increased global environmental destruction, and under business-as-usual, the world is entering a phase of biodiversity scarcity and instability. Eco-Marxists have analysed the environmental crisis in the Anthropocene in depth, and Foster, as a representative figure, has developed his own ideas on the Anthropocene.The worsening global environmental crisis, the vigorous rise of environmental protection movements around the world, and the emergence of the Anthropocene as a hot topic are the important backgrounds for Foster to put forward his Anthropocene idea, in which he also absorbed the ecological ideas of Marx and Engels, the research results of natural sciences, especially geology, and the research progress of his contemporaries‘ eco-Marxists.According to Foster, the Anthropocene originated in the 1950s, a period that saw the end of World War II and the entry of capitalism into the age of global monopoly. The hallmarks used to determine the Anthropocene were the global diffusion of radioactive elements and the deposition of synthetic materials (mainly plastics) in the earth‘s strata, which left a permanent record in the earth‘s soils and glaciers and could be detected for thousands of years.The first stage of the Anthropocene is the "capital period", during which capitalism expanded the ecological crisis to the whole world, and mankind was caught in the choice between "ecological destruction or ecological revolution"; the second stage of the Anthropocene is the "communist period", during which capitalism expanded the ecological crisis to the whole world, and mankind was caught in the choice between "ecological destruction or ecological revolution". The second stage of the Anthropocene is the "communist period", in which humanity needs to change the production system, which is mainly based on capital accumulation, and establish a new material-environmental relationship with the Earth. The great acceleration, the transcendence of planetary boundaries and the prevalence of "imperial lifestyles" are the environmental consequences of the Anthropocene.The ecological crisis of the Anthropocene is caused by the proliferative and expansive nature of capital and capitalism‘s deep dependence on fossil fuels. In response to this crisis, Foster puts forward the idea of an ecological revolution, in which the main body of the revolution is the environmental proletariat, the mode of the revolution is micro-struggle, the revolution takes place mainly in the global South, and the future society is ecologically sustainable socialism.Foster regards China‘s ecological civilisation as a realistic solution to the environmental crisis of the Anthropocene, believing that the concept of ecological civilisation has a natural affinity with traditional Chinese culture, and that China‘s contribution in the field of ecological civilisation "can be regarded as the greatest gift to the world".
