How the environment became global

Abstract

As Environment is a relational concept (existing in the interactions between humans and biophysical systems), the globalization of human impacts on biophysical systems has resulted not only in a quantitative magnification of those impacts, but in a qualitative shift in the conceptualization and experience of the environment. Contrary to its historical perception, specifically, people now view the environment predominantly as a global rather than a local phenomenon. For this shift in spatial scale to occur, science had to recognize that biophysical processes operate globally and that human actions are modifying these global systems. The public also had to recognize these concepts. The post-1945 period of globalization of the environment corresponds with the timeframe of the Great Acceleration, as the economic growth of this period caused both global environmental changes and the technology and scientific advances needed to detect them. This article articulates a viewpoint that human activities have made the environment global, resulting from positive feedbacks among biophysical and human systems.