From Anthropocene to Noosphere: The Great Acceleration

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.

Human‐mediated dispersal redefines mangrove biogeography in the Anthropocene

“…Natural biogeographic barriers cause dispersal limitation of species, which shapes 'classical' biogeographic patterns with increased dissimilarity in the community with increasing geographic distances (Nekola and White 1999, Thuiller et al 2005, Alvarez-Noriega et al 2020). In the Anthropocene, humans play a central role in shaping geology and ecology (Crutzen and Stoermer 2000, Steffen et al 2016, Lee-Yaw et al 2019, Shoshitaishvili 2021. The Anthropocene theory suggests that human activities such as species introductions, artificial transplantations, trade and travel have facilitated breaching of natural biogeographic barriers, which results in species establishment in locations far away from their native range (Helmus et al 2014, Capinha et al 2015, Ellis 2015, Lundgren et al 2018, Lee-Yaw et al 2019.…”

Current Challenges in Environmental Education: Case Study of Human-Induced Landscapes Dynamics

“…About seventy years ago, population growth and the level of human interaction with the Earth ecosystem entered a period of unprecedented change. This world-historical turning point after the Second World War was identified as the beginning of the Great Acceleration by the majority in Englishlanguage literature (Burchett, 2016;Shoshitaishvili, 2020). The anthropocene paradigm interprets the Great Acceleration as a world-historical process in which humanity becomes a technologically advanced, primarily material planetary force, marking the beginning of a new geological era, significant human impact on Earth's geology and ecosystems, including anthropogenic climate change.…”

Collective Consciousness Supported by the Web: Healthy or Toxic?

“…Nearly a century ago, the visionary scientist and philosopher Teilhard de Chardin proposed the concept of the noosphere ("mind sphere"), which he conceived as a layer of thought that envelops the Earth, or as a collective brain constituted out of billions of individual brains communicating via a network of links [7,8]. While this concept to some degree anticipated the World-Wide Web, it adds that this network would support a global reflection that would allow humanity to resolve its problems, and thus converge to a coherent understanding.…”