In this presentation the start is made from the 2007 IPCC statement that it now seems consolidated that there is a clear sign of the importance of the anthropogenic factors in the climate change panorama in addition to the natural phenomena. Thus the current situation of civilisation seems to be characterised by the quickly growing interference and to some extent control by humans over natural flows e.g. the carbon or nitrogen cycles to an extent not earlier seen in history. This development is of recent date - maybe half a century - and could be regarded as the beginning of a new era that the Nobel Prize winner Paul Crutzen and others have labelled as the era of the "Anthropocen". This has research policy, risk management, governance and political consequences.