Greatest Accelerations III: Pleasure Palaces and Sweatshops

Novel Lunge Biomechanics in Modern Sabre Fencing

This paper renews the argument for the Anthropocene as a formal unit of geological time by reassessing the so-called Great Acceleration. In March 2024, the Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy rejected a proposal to formalise the Anthropocene at series/epoch level, with a base in 1952 CE. I show that there is still a strong case for amending the Geological Time Scale to reflect the recent departure of the Earth System from the Holocene envelope of variability. That departure has taken place since the mid-20th century, and has been made up of a cluster of interlinked economic and Earth System transformations: the ‘Great Acceleration’. The Great Acceleration emerged within a specific long-term historical context. Over the past five centuries, the global economy has increasingly been structured as a single worldwide system, based on a division of production between wealthier ‘core’ and poorer ‘peripheral’ zones. The development of the modern world-system is the larger event that has terminated the Holocene epoch. I analyse the dynamics of the world-system via an assessment of one of its constituent phases: the Industrial Revolution, circa 1760–1830. The Great Acceleration itself is most closely associated with a phase of the modern world-system lasting circa 1945–1973. That broader context clarifies the geopolitical and economic drivers of recent Earth System changes and their stratigraphic signatures.

Global trade is a neglected topic in debates on the Anthropocene, but plays an implicit role in several suggested definitions of it. Trade’s role in shifting environmental burdens around the globe differed substantially between the Columbian Exchange (1492−1800), the Industrial Revolution (~1800−1950) and the Great Acceleration (post-1950). However, this systematic state-of-the-art review shows that the more than 350 global studies of trade-embedded environmental factors all centre on the Great Acceleration. An underlying concern here is whether environmental factor flows are to the economic and/or environmental benefit of all, a case of the rich exploiting the poor, or merely the inadvertent consequence of differences in environmental efficiency. We point out similarities in the trends and direction of flows between major world regions and between developed and developing countries. Factors such as land, virtual water, HANPP and eutrophying pollutants that are related to the organic economy (or direct biomass flows), primarily flow from regions where population density is low to where it is high, and are only secondarily affected by affluence. Indicators such as energy, airborne pollutant emissions and greenhouse gasses that are related to the mineral economy (fossil fuel, metal and mineral use) tend to flow from developing to developed countries, and are explained either by higher consumption rates or greater environmental efficiency in affluent countries, which has similar consequences for net flows. We weave the shifting trends and directions of flows during the Great Acceleration into a coherent story. Finally, returning to the period before the Great Acceleration, we argue the need for global studies of trade-embedded factor flows before 1950 to test ideas on the character and origins of the Anthropocene, and to accomplish this suggest either geographically extending quantitative long-term national and/or commodity studies, or environmentally extending recently compiled global monetary bilateral trade data for the pre-1950 period.

<p>Changes occurred in denudation/sedimentation processes (understood here as the transfer of solid materials from one place of the earth’s surface to another, by different agents) in the latter part of the Holocene, mainly the last couple of centuries, are examined, trying to estimate rates and assess the role of human and natural agents. Three issues are addressed here, on the basis of some case studies: slope movements and their contribution to denudation and relief evolution; “technological denudation” due to human activities; general evolution of sediment accumulation (consequence of denudation).</p><p>Analyses of materials transfer by, and frequency of, slope movements in N Spain have shown the importance of human influence already in Neolithic times, and more so after the Industrial Revolution. Significant increases have been observed since the middle of last century and slope movements seem to be in some cases the main factor of relief evolution.</p><p>Human activities related to urban-industrial development, infrastructure and mining activities represent an important “human geomorphic footprint” (expressed as volume of materials displaced or area occupied by new “anthropogeoforms”; yearly total or per capita). If the materials thus moved were evenly distributed over all emerged lands they could be presently equivalent to a >1 mm a<sup>-1</sup> (“technological”) denudation. As this is the consequence of growing population, technological and economic development, it will probably intensify with time.</p><p>Sedimentation rates directly determined (Pb-210, Cs-137) in a number of estuaries, lakes and reservoirs show in general a clear increase since early 20<sup>th</sup> century, particularly after its middle. Compilation and analysis of sedimentation rates in a variety of sedimentation environments in different regions of the world, since late 19<sup>th</sup> century, also show, with almost no exception, a similar trend. Comparison with rainfall evolution does not explain the changes observed. However, indicators of the intensity of human activity, especially GDP (Gross Domestic Product; total, not per capita; strongly related to our capacity to transform land), show a good similarity with sedimentation rates trends. This indicator also shows a close correlation with geomorphic disasters frequency (another manifestation of the general intensification of geomorphic processes).</p><p>On the basis of the information gathered and results presented, some tentative conclusions are proposed. It appears that presently humans are, by far, the main denudation agent. Direct and indirect transfer of rock, soil and sediment by human activities could be one order of magnitude greater than by natural agents. The rates of some geomorphic processes seem to have experienced a significant acceleration (about tenfold?) in less than a century, due to land surface transformation rather than to climate change. This “great geomorphic acceleration” represents a part of the “Great Acceleration” occurred after mid-twentieth century. Global geomorphic change (independent of climate change) should thus be considered as one of the characteristics of the Anthropocene, for which the end of World War II would indeed be an appropriate starting date.</p>

The human growth curve shows two (and only two) outstanding periods of accelerated growth—the circumnatal and the adolescent. The circumnatal growth cycle attains great velocity, which reaches a maximum at the time of birth. The curve of this cycle is best fitted by a theoretical skew curve of Pearson's Type I. It has a theoretical range of 44 months and a standard deviation of 5.17 months. The modal velocity is 10.2 kilos per year. The adolescent growth cycle has less maximum velocity and greater range in time than the circumnatal cycle. The best fitting theoretical curve is a normal frequency curve ranging over about 10 years with a standard deviation of about 21 months and a modal velocity of 4.5 kilos per year. The two great growth accelerations are superimposed on a residual curve of growth which measures a substratum of growth out of which the accelerations arise. This probably extends from conception to 55 years, on the average. It is characterized by low velocity, averaging about 2 kilos per year from 2 to 12 years. It is interpreted as due to many growth operations coincident or closely blending in time. Our curve shows no third marked period of acceleration at between the 3rd and 6th years. The total growth in weight of the body is the sum of the weight of its constituent organs. In some cases these keep pace with the growth of the body as a whole; great accelerations of body growth are due to great accelerations in growth of the constituent organs. In other cases one of the organs of the body (like the thymus gland) may undergo a change in weight that is not in harmony with that of the body as a whole. The development of the weight in man is the resultant of many more or less elementary growth processes. These result in two special episodes of growth and numerous smaller, blending, growth operations. Hypotheses are suggested as to the basis of the special growth accelerations.

Reviewed by: The Great Acceleration: An Environmental History of the Anthropocene since 1945by J. R. McNeill and Peter Engelke Finn Arne Jørgensen (bio) The Great Acceleration: An Environmental History of the Anthropocene since 1945. by J. R. McNeill and Peter Engelke. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2016. Pp. 288. $19.95. Over the last few years, the Anthropocene has become a remarkably hot topic, both within academia and in the public sphere. Scholars and activists from all disciplines have embraced, challenged, and contested this amorphous and seemingly all-encompassing concept of the Age of Humans. These debates range widely, covering the causes, implications, responsibility, and periodization of the Anthropocene. The stakes are high, since this is where geological time bleeds into the present. In 1885, the International Geological Congress officially adopted the Holocene as a name for the current geological epoch characterized by stability of climate, allowing a flourishing of human civilization. The Anthropocene represents a break with the stability of the Holocene, characterizing a world irrevocably changed by the technologically augmented activities of humanity. The Great Accelerationis an environmental history of the Anthropocene, organized in four chapters that center on energy and population; climate and biological diversity; cities and the economy; and the cold war and environmental change. J. R. McNeill and Peter Engelke tell a large story in a short book, easy to read and filled with many illustrative mini-histories from across the world. This aggregated approach leads to few identifiable historical actors besides countries and corporations, which leaves individual human agency and responsibility in the Anthropocene an unanswered question. McNeill and Engelke place the start of the Anthropocene within the exponential escalation of the human impact on Earth and the biosphere since 1945, often called the Great Acceleration. Energy stands at the center of the story they tell, using both statistics and short historical examples. For instance, they highlight that since 1945, three-quarters of the human-caused loading of the atmosphere with carbon dioxide took place; the number of motor vehicles increased from 40 million to 850 million; the number of [End Page 623]people tripled, a large part in cities; the production of plastics grew from 1 million tons in 1950 to 300 million tons in 2015; and synthesized nitrogen (largely for fertilizers) grew from under 4 million tons to 85 million tons. The point with these many and often technology-based factoids that fill the book is that within a human lifetime, our impact on the planet and its resources has accelerated dramatically. McNeill and Engelke argue that this development has a physical limitation, as we are burning through the resources that this acceleration utterly depends on. Technology is absolutely central to their analysis, though it is seldom explicitly discussed in the book. Instead, technologies indirectly shape the Anthropocene through agriculture, fishing, deforestation, urbanization, transportation, and scientific monitoring of the world. But more than anything, McNeill and Engelke treat technology as a means of unlocking new energy sources and of extracting millions of years of prior photosynthesis stored underground. Like so much scholarship on the Anthropocene, this book can be depressing reading. There is a clear underlying story of humanity as interested in maximizing short-term gains, effectively making the Anthropocene a tragedy of the commons. Yet McNeill and Engelke make sure to highlight some positive trends, such as ongoing transitions to cleaner energy sources. Likewise, new technology made economically viable by political regulation (often instigated by citizen action) has reduced environmental damage, but one could argue that this is often countered by growth in consumption. It is clear from their book that the future depends on the crafting of new energy systems. A shift toward non-fossil fuels will likely slow down the Great Acceleration, but the Anthropocene will continue and its consequences will linger for a long time. The Great Acceleration may be a blip in time, but the Anthropocene is not. The Anthropocene debate represents an arena for increased visibility and relevance of historical scholarship. It is arguably the first geological age to fully reside in the domain of what we do as historians. As a result, historians are being invited into these debates...

Homo Sapiens Sapiens Progressive Defaunation During The Great Acceleration: The Cli-Fi Apocalypse Hypothesis

The American anthropocene: Economic scarcity and growth during the great acceleration

The chapter first discusses the Great Divide that separates Western societies from the range of societies around the world, where the dichotomy of nature and culture is central to this divide. Ideas and practices associated with that dichotomy were imposed on others and early forms of environmental awareness arose on the colonial periphery, a forerunner of the current concern with climate change. The second section draws on Polanyi's The Great Transformation to show that colonial transformations documented in the first section were occurring at the same time a theory of market liberalism was developed, based on the idea that societies should be subordinated to self-regulating markets. The move from solar to coal-powered and subsequently oil-based energy was central here as were the environmental implications. The final section describes the 'great acceleration' of changes to the socio-economic and biophysical spheres that has resulted and current analyses of our planetary predicament.

The article examines Austria’s economy under National Socialism from a socioecological perspective that combines materialist and culturalist approaches. Questioning the caesuras of the ‘backbreak’ in 1945 and the ‘Great Acceleration’ around 1950, the article emphasizes the comparatively strong acceleration of the appropriation of key resources for the autarky and armament economy – mineral fertilizer, crude oil, aluminium and rayon – already during the Nazi period. The productivist resource mobilization pursued by the Nazi regime and German corporations met with loud but rather ineffective protest from conservationist activists who defended their image of the landscape as a ‘garden’. In the long run, the acceleration of resource flows in the Nazi period was embedded in Austria’s petro-industrial transition from the 1930s to the 1950s: as the forerunner (‘Little Acceleration’) or even the onset of the ‘Great Acceleration’ of material and energy flows that came into full effect in the postwar period, interrupted by the economic shock of the change of the political regime in 1945.

The era in which the distinction between natural processes and human activity was clear has passed. Since at least the 'Great Acceleration' of the mid-20th century, we have entered a new phase where environmental changes, unprecedented in scale, are no longer purely natural. Instead, they stem from the growth of a hybrid aggregate, both natural and artificial. Consequently, things and places can no longer remain unchanged; they do not adhere to our previous conceptions. 'Non-human' entities now respond to our actions, rendering them inherently cultural and anthropogenic. Operating within the present, these entities not only act but also accumulate a form of material memory over time. Even seemingly inert matter is alive, facing the challenges of the Anthropocene: an era characterized by devastation and the destruction of material memory. Thus, the concept of heritage takes on new significance: what does it mean now, and what purpose does it serve? How do we define saving, protecting, or even acknowledging what we continue to call archaeological heritage? The most profound transformations of the Anthropocene are yet to unfold, underscoring the limitations of archaeological practice, which primarily focuses on human creations at a human scale.

The challenge for the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP) in 1999 was how to integrate the evidence of humans transforming Earth’s functioning as a system into a coherent overview of global environmental change. The IGBP report Global Change and the Earth System: A Planet Under Pressure (2004) identified a dramatic mid-20th-century step-change in anthropogenic global environmental change, which would come to be called ‘The Great Acceleration’. ‘The Great Acceleration’ outlines the complex, multi-causal, system-level set of processes that have altered the Earth system, from domestication of land to human alterations of the atmosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere. It also discusses tipping points that result in relatively rapid, non-linear, and potentially irreversible ‘step-changes’ in Earth’s climate system.

There has been a sharp rise in the extent and scale of human activities since the mid-20th century, termed the "Great Acceleration", and nuclear activities are one of the defining technological processes for this period. 239,240Pu released by atmospheric nuclear weapons tests provides an ideal chronostratigraphic marker for labeling this change due to its global fallout feature, temporal mutation, and long half-lives. However, the accumulation dynamics of plutonium from atmospheric deposition to preservation in the sediment is still controversial. Three sediment cores collected from two maar lakes with high-quality chronology were analyzed for 239,240Pu. The first high-yield thermonuclear test (31st October 1952) and the highest global tests in 1961-1962 were identified, respectively, as the first rapidly increased 239,240Pu in 1953 and peaked in 1963. In anoxic Lake Sihailongwan (SHLW), scavenging Pu from the water to sediment was accelerated due to the major particulate associated forms of Pu(III) and Pu(IV) and rapidly elevated dust flux when ice-melting occurred in every spring. The desorption of Pu from beneath sediment to the lake water and resorption by sediment particles were stronger in shallow and oxic Lake Huguangyan. Therefore, the first rapid increase of 239,240Pu in 1953 and peak in 1963 accompanied by rapid scavenging and well preservation of plutonium provide a robust time marker for the "Great Acceleration", and this marker nearly permanently exists in such kind of lake sediment similar to Lake SHLW.

In terms of the efficiency and informatization in the architecture and construction industry, the Fourth Industrial Revolution presents positive aspects of technological development, but we need to discuss the expanded concept, the Anthropocene.The era of the human-made environment having a powerful influence on the global system is called Anthropocene.Since the 1950s, many indicators representing human activity and earth system have shown the `Great acceleration'.Currently, lots of urban data including building information, construction waste, and GHG emission ratio is indicating how much the urban area was contaminated with artifacts.So, the integrated planning and design approach are needed for sustainable design with data integration.This paper examines the GIS, LCA and BIM tools focusing on building information and environmental load.With the literature review, the computational system for sustainable design is demonstrated to integrate into one holistic framework for the Anthropocene.There were some limitations that data was simplified during the statistical processing, and the framework has limitations that must be demonstrated by actual data in the future.However, this could be an early approach to integrating geospatial and environmental analysis with the design framework.And it can be applied to another urban area for sustainable urban models for the Anthropocene

Since the coinage of the term Anthropocene, scholarly debates have been dominated by critics of the reference to anthropos, the abstract undifferentiated global subject of the new geological epoch. Many humanities scholars objected that this aggregated whole obfuscates inequalities and responsibilities. While the prefix ‘Anthropos’ has been the target of sharp criticisms, the suffix ‘cene’ remained unchallenged. This paper questions the relevance of the chronological timeline divided up into a sequence of epochs differentiated in terms of scales. I argue that the discourse about the ‘great acceleration’ pointing to a clash of tempos relies on the chronological framework. The single uniform timeline covering all events from the origin of the universe to the birth of individual people tends to conceal the variety of timelines whose interplay determines the climate. I suggest that the current ecological crisis calls for a radical revision of our notion of time which is based on the western metaphysics where human subjects reign supreme over nature and the earth. This crisis invites us to adopt a polychronic view, assuming a variety of heterogeneous temporal trajectories. The first section presents the thesis of ‘the great acceleration’ as a grand narrative based on on the western modern framework. The second section disentangles the prerequisites of the construction of this universal timeline: the assumption of a view from nowhere that makes all times commensurable. In the third section I venture the metaphor of timescape as an alternative to the usual timescales of the universal chronology. This notion seems more appropriate to understand the ecological crisis as resulting from conflicting temporalities. The final section tests the timescaping approach on the cases of two technologies that are considered as candidate markers of the onset of the Anthropocene: nuclear technology and plastics.