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Great Acceleration

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The Great Acceleration refers to the recent surge in the exponentially increasing growth rate of 'progress' and its impact upon the Earth's geology and its ecosystems. This growth rate was, for hundreds of thousands of years, relatively slow and mostly insignificant when viewed through the lens of a single lifetime. It began to grow faster with the start of the Industrial Age, but starting after the Second World War[1], and in particular, with the beginning of the space program, this rate of acceleration became noticeably faster. It has been hypothesized that in the future, this trend will culminate in a technological Singularity, where technological growth becomes uncontrollable and irreversible, resulting in unfathomable changes to human civilization, the ecosystem, the Earth and even the universe itself.


Overview

In tracking the effects of human activity upon the Earth, a number of socioeconomic and earth system parameters are utilized including population, economics, water usage, food production, transportation, technology, green house gases, surface temperature, and natural resource usage.[2] The Anthropocene is typically depicted as following the Holocene, to emphasize the central role of humankind in geology and ecology.[1] Since 1950, these trends are increasing significantly if not exponentially.[3]

Great Acceleration Data Classification Categories

The international Geosphere-Biosphere Programme has divided and analyzed data from years 1750 to 2010 into two broad categories each with 12 subcategories.[4] The first category of socioeconomic trend data illustrates the impact on the second, the earth system trend data.

Socioeconomic Trends category of the Great Acceleration of the Anthropocene from 1750 to 2010. The data graphically displayed is scaled for each subcategories' 2010 value. Source data is from the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme www.igbp.net
  1. Population
  2. Real GDP
  3. Foreign Direct Investment
  4. Urban population
  5. Primary energy use
  6. Fertiliser consumption
  7. Large dams
  8. Water use
  9. Paper production
  10. Transportation
  11. Telecommunications
  12. International Tourism
Earth System Trends category of the Great Acceleration of the Anthropocene from 1750 to 2010. The data graphically displayed is scaled for each subcategories' 2010 value. Source data is from the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme www.igbp.net
  1. Carbon dioxide
  2. Nitrous oxide
  3. Methane
  4. Stratospheric ozone
  5. Surface temperature
  6. Ocean acidification
  7. Marine fish capture
  8. Shrimp aquaculture
  9. Nitrogen to coastal zone
  10. Tropical forest loss
  11. Domesticated land
  12. Terrestrial biosphere degradation

References

Wikiquote has quotations related to Great Acceleration.
  1. ^ a b Mcneill, J. R. (2014). The Great Acceleration: An Environmental History of the Anthropocene since 1945. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0674545038.
  2. ^ Steffen, Will; Crutzen, Paul J.; McNeill, John R. (2007). "The Anthropocene: Are Humans Now Overwhelming the Great Forces of Nature?". Ambio. 36 (8): 614–621. doi:10.1579/0044-7447(2007)36[614:TAAHNO]2.0.CO;2. JSTOR 25547826.
  3. ^ ANTHROPOCENE. "Welcome to the Anthropocene". Welcome to the Anthropocene. Retrieved March 10, 2018.
  4. ^ Broadgate, Wendy; et al. "The Great Acceleration data (October 2014)". International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme. Retrieved 21 April 2018.
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