The concept of global environmental change (GEC) is generally held to be of two types: cumulative and systemic. The idea of the global environment is largely a post-World War II scientific and political achievement, initially launched as a unifying idea for a humanity threatened by nuclear extinction. Anthropology has been slow to engage with the idea of systemic GEC, largely due to its traditional focus on local place-based societies. Furthermore, the “local” as understood by anthropologists is a fundamentally different mode of apprehension from that which is constructed by downscaling global models. The discipline is increasingly contributing not just to the understanding of local effects but also to wider issues of public perception, consumption, formation of scientific knowledge, and global environmental governance. Anthropology also has a responsibility to challenge the coercive potential of the idea of GEC—especially its latest formulation as the Anthropocene—to be co-opted by particular policy agendas.