„The Long Acceleration: Rethinking the Historical Causes of the Planetary Emergency”

We are living through an unprecedented planetary emergency with deep historical roots. Instead of linking the change in the earth system to the Great Acceleration of the global economy after 1950, our argument stresses the multi-dimensional and long-term causes of the ongoing planetary emergency with special attention to the period 1870-1914. While the Anthropocene is usually linked to the development of postwar consumer societies, we root the beginnings of earth system change in the Second Industrial Revolution and the age of high imperialism.