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2 - Energy, population, and environmental change since 1750: entering the Anthropocene

from Part I - Material matrices

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 May 2015

By
J. R. McNeill
Edited by
J. R. McNeill  and
Kenneth Pomeranz
J. R. McNeill
Affiliation:
Georgetown University, Washington DC
Kenneth Pomeranz
Affiliation:
University of Chicago
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Summary

A host of scholars, scientists, journalists, and others have begun to bandy about the term 'the Anthropocene', a term popularized by the atmospheric chemist Paul Crutzen since 2000. Geologists are struggling vainly to create a common definition of the term to match definitions they accept for other eras, epochs, and periods such as the Miocene or the Holocene. Several big shifts took place to nudge us into the Anthropocene, but the biggest of all was the adoption of fossil fuels and the leaps in energy use since 1750. Food and fiber frontiers formed only a part of the impact on the land in the age of fossil fuels. The Anthropocene witnessed unprecedented global population growth. Energy and industrialization, population growth and urbanization brought on the Anthropocene. The recognition of climate change, and anxieties about future prospects, animated a new dimension of international politics and climate politics which centered on the question of how to reduce carbon emissions to the atmosphere.
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge World History , pp. 51 - 82
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2015

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References

Further reading

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