Great Acceleration

The Great Acceleration is the dramatic, continuous and roughly simultaneous surge in growth rate across a
large range of measures of human activity, first recorded in mid-20th century and continuing to this day.[1][2]
Within the concept of the proposed epoch of anthropocene, these measures are those specifically of humanity's
impact on Earth's geology and its ecosystems. In the concept, the Great Acceleration can be variously
classified as the only age of the epoch to date, one of many ages of the epoch – depending on the epoch's
proposed start date – or a defining feature of the epoch that is thus not an age, as well as other
classifications.[3][4]

Environmental historian J. R. McNeill has argued that the Great Acceleration is idiosyncratic of the current age
and is doomed to halt in the near future; that it has never happened before and will never happen again.[5]
However, climate change scientist and chemist Will Steffen's team have found that evidence is inconclusive to
testify or rule out such a claim.

Related to Great Acceleration is the concept of accelerating change. While not explicitly commenting on
whether the Great Acceleration as a whole is set to continue into the near future, the common implication is
that the particular trend of accelerating progress will not cease until technological singularity is achieved, at
which point technological growth becomes uncontrollable and irreversible, resulting in unfathomable changes
to the Earth and sometimes even the universe itself.[5] Therefore, while adherents of the theory of accelerating
change do not comment on the short-term fate of the Great Acceleration, they do hold that its eventual fate is
continuation, which also contradicts McNeill's conclusions.

Contents
Overview
Data classification categories
Socioeconomic trends
Earth system trends
See also
References

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.[6] The Anthropocene is
typically depicted as following the Holocene, to emphasize the central role of humankind in geology and
ecology.[5] Since 1950, these trends are increasing significantly if not exponentially.[7]

Data classification categories

The International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP) has divided and analyzed data from years 1750 to
2010 into two broad categories, each with 12 subcategories.[8] The first category of socioeconomic trend data
illustrates the impact on the second, the earth system trend data.

Socioeconomic trends
1. Population
2. Real GDP
3. Foreign direct investment
4. Urban population
5. Primary energy use
6. Fertiliser consumption
7. Large dams
Socioeconomic Trends category of
8. Water use the Great Acceleration of the
9. Paper production Anthropocene from 1750 to 2010.
10. Transportation The data graphically displayed is
11. Telecommunications scaled for each subcategory's 2010
value. Source data is from the
12. International tourism
International Geosphere-Biosphere
Programme www.igbp.net

Earth system trends

1. Carbon dioxide
2. Nitrous oxide
3. Methane
4. Stratospheric ozone
5. Surface temperature
6. Ocean acidification
7. Marine fish capture
8. Shrimp aquaculture Earth System Trends category of
the Great Acceleration of the
9. Nitrogen to coastal zone
Anthropocene from 1750 to 2010.
10. Tropical forest loss The data graphically displayed is
11. Domesticated land scaled for each subcategory's 2010
12. Terrestrial biosphere degradation value. Source data is from the
International Geosphere-Biosphere
Programme www.igbp.net
See also
Accelerating change – Perceived increase in the rate of technological change throughout
history
Future Shock – Book by Alvin Toffler
Buckminster Fuller – American architect, systems theorist, author, designer, inventor and
futurist

References
1. "Definition of Great Acceleration" (https://futureearth.org/2015/01/16/the-great-acceleration/).
Future Earth. January 16, 2015.
 2. Steffen, Will; Broadgate, Wendy; Deutsch, Lisa; Gaffney, Owen; Ludwig, Cornelia (April 2015).
"The trajectory of the Anthropocene: The Great Acceleration". The Anthropocene Review. 2 (1):
81–98. doi:10.1177/2053019614564785 (https://doi.org/10.1177%2F2053019614564785).
hdl:1885/66463 (https://hdl.handle.net/1885%2F66463). ISSN 2053-0196 (https://www.worldca
t.org/issn/2053-0196).
3. "Definition of Great Acceleration presenting it as a basic feature and cause of the
anthropocene" (http://anthropocene.info/great-acceleration.php).
4. "Alternative definition of Great Acceleration" (http://www.igbp.net/globalchange/greataccelerati
on.4.1b8ae20512db692f2a680001630.html).
5. Mcneill, J. R. (2014). The Great Acceleration: An Environmental History of the Anthropocene
since 1945. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0674545038.
6. 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 (https://doi.org/10.1579%2F0044-7447%282007%293
6%5B614%3ATAAHNO%5D2.0.CO%3B2). hdl:1885/29029 (https://hdl.handle.net/1885%2F29
029). JSTOR 25547826 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/25547826). PMID 18240674 (https://pubm
ed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18240674).
7. ANTHROPOCENE. "Welcome to the Anthropocene" (http://www.anthropocene.info/great-accel
eration.php). Welcome to the Anthropocene. Retrieved March 10, 2018.
8. Broadgate, Wendy; et al. "The Great Acceleration data (October 2014)" (http://www.igbp.net).
International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme. Retrieved 21 April 2018.

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