Great Acceleration from Anthropocene to Noosphere

* Article: Shoshitaishvili, B. (2021). From Anthropocene to Noosphere: The Great Acceleration. Earth's Future, 9, e2020EF001917. [1]

URL = https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2020EF001917

"A balanced global understanding of ongoing anthropogenic change requires the integration of insights from both paradigms."

Abstract

"The complex set of human-driven global, social, technological, and environmental changes intensifying dramatically since 1950 has been identified as the “Great Acceleration.” This period of time represents a radical shift in our collective relationship to each other as well as to the Earth system as a whole. In this article I consider two major paradigms now taking shape to offer different perspectives on the Great Acceleration: The Anthropocene and the Noosphere. I explore the scientific-intellectual traditions from which each paradigm derives and contrast their nearly opposite normative evaluations of global transformation. The Anthropocene has emerged as the paradigm of rupture, materiality, and warning; the Noosphere as the paradigm of development, mind/culture, and hope. I also highlight preliminary attempts at bringing the two divergent paradigms closer together into a more unified and balanced vision of planetary change.

Plain Language Summary: Since 1950, humanity has accelerated its population growth, energy use, and release of greenhouse gases, along with a variety of other environmentally and socioeconomically significant trends. Taken together, this set of accelerated human-driven trends has been called the “Great Acceleration,” and its occurrence helps explain recent climate change and ecological disturbance. In this article, I explore two dominant but divergent paradigms for what is happening to our species as it becomes globalized and continues in the Great Acceleration. One of the paradigms is related to the newly proposed geological epoch of the “Anthropocene” (the Age of the Human Being), which sees the Great Acceleration as a rupture in our relationship to the Earth System. The other paradigm centers on the concept of a “Noosphere” (a sphere of thought) and proposes that human beings are forming a planetary awareness through these interlocking and accelerating trends. I argue that we need to learn from both paradigms to achieve a balanced understanding of the Great Acceleration.

Key Points:

• The Anthropocene and the Noosphere are divergent paradigms for understanding the anthropogenic changes of the Great Acceleration

• The Anthropocene envisions the Great Acceleration as material-energetic rupture; the Noosphere as an increase in global awareness

• A balanced global understanding of ongoing anthropogenic change requires the integration of insights from both paradigms "

(https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2020EF001917)