The increasing rates of change in human activity since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. Significant increases in rates of change occur around the 1950s in each case, and illustrate how the past 50 years have been a period of dramatic and unprecedented change in human history (US Bureau of the Census 2000; Nordhaus 1997; World Bank 2002; World Commission on Dams 2000; Shiklomanov 1990; International Fertilizer Industry Association 2002; UN Centre for Human Settlements 2001; Pulp and Paper International 1993; McDonalds 2002; UNEP 2000; Canning 2001; World Tourism Organization 2001). Global-scale changes in the Earth system, as a result of the dramatic increase in human activity: (a) atmospheric CO2 concentration (Etheridge et al, 1996); (b) atmospheric N2O concentration (Machida et al, 1995); (c) atmospheric CH4 concentration (Blunier et al, 1993); (d) percentage total column ozone loss over Antarctica, using the average annual total column ozone, 330, as a base (Image: J D Shanklin, British Antarctic Survey); (e) northern hemisphere average surface temperature anomalies (Mann et al, 1999); (f) natural disasters after 1900 resulting in more than ten people killed or more than 100 people affected (OFDA/CRED, 2002); (g) percentage of global fisheries either fully exploited, overfished or collapsed (FAOSTAT, 2002); (h) annual shrimp production as a proxy for coastal zone alteration (WRI, 2003; FAOSTAT, 2002); (i) model-calculated partitioning of the human-induced nitrogen perturbation fluxes in the global coastal margin for the period since 1850 (Mackenzie et al, 2002); (j) loss of tropical rainforest and woodland, as estimated for tropical Africa, Latin America and South and Southeast Asia (Richards, 1990; WRI, 1990); (k) amount of land converted to pasture and cropland (Klein Goldewijk and Battjes, 1997); and (l) mathematically calculated rate of extinction (based on Wilson, 1992)

The two sets of graphs, right, illustrate how human activity has changed since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, and the impacts that our societies have had on the Earth as a whole.

All figures are taken, with the kind permission of the publishers, from:


Steffen W, Sanderson A, Tyson P D, Jäger J, Matson P, Moore III B, Oldfield F, Richardson K, Schellnhuber H-J, Turner II B L and Wasson R J (2004) Global Change and the Earth System: A Planet Under Pressure. The IGBP Book Series, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg, New York, 336 pp

Specific references used are as follows:

Blunier T, Chappellaz J, Schwander J, Barnola J-M, Desperts T, Stauffer B, Raynaud D (1993) “Atmospheric methane record from a Greenland ice core over the last 1000 years.” Geophysical Research Letters, vol 20, p 2219-2222

Canning D (1998) World Bank: A database of world infrastructure stocks, 1950–95. World Bank, Washington DC

Etheridge D M, Steele L P, Langenfelds R L, Francey R J, Barnola J-M, Morgan V I (1996) “Natural and anthropogenic changes in atmospheric CO2 over the last 1000 years from air in Antarctic ice and firn.” Journal of Geophysical Research, vol 101, p 4115-4128

FAOSTAT (2002) Statistical Databases. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome.

International Fertilizer Industry Association (2002) Fertilizer Indicators

Klein Goldewijk K, Battjes J J (1997) “One hundred year (1890 – 1990) database for integrated environmental assessments.” National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM). Bilthoven, Netherlands

Machida T, Nakazawa T, Fujii Y, Aoki S, Watanabe O (1995) “Increase in the atmospheric nitrous oxide concentration during the last 250 years.” Geophysical Research Letters, vol 22, p 2921-2924

Mackenzie F T, Ver L M, Lerman A (2002) “Century-scale nitrogen and phosphorus controls of the carbon cycle.” Chemical Geology, vol 190, p 13-32

Mann M E, Bradley R S, Hughes M K (1999) “Northern hemisphere temperatures during the past millennium: inferences, uncertainties, and limitations.” Geophysical Research Letters, vol 26(6), p 759-762

McDonalds homepage

Nordhaus (1997) “Do real wage and output series capture reality? The history of lighting suggests not.” In: Bresnahan T, Gordon R (eds) The economics of new goods. University of Chicago Press, Chicago. (Download the chapter as a PDF)

OFDA/CRED (2002) Emergency Events Database (EM-DAT): The OFDA (United States Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance)/CRED (Center for Research on the Epidemiology of Disaster) international disaster database. Louvain Catholic University, Belgium

Pulp and Paper International (1993) “PPI’s international fact and price book”. In: FAO forest product yearbook 1960-1991. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome

Richards J (1990) “Land transformation.” In: Turner II B L, Clark W C, Kates R W, Richards J F, Mathews J T, Meyer W B (eds) The Earth as transformed by human action: Global and regional changes in the biosphere over the past 300 years. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge pp 163-201

Shiklomanov I A (1990) “Global water resources.” Nature and Resources, vol 26(3)

UN Center for Human Settlements (2001) The state of the world’s cities, 2001. United Nations

UNEP (2000) Global environmental outlook 2000. Clarke R (ed), United Nations Environment Programme

US Bureau of the Census (2000) International Database.

Wilson E O (1992) The diversity of life. Allen Lane, the Penguin Press

World Bank (2002) Data and statistics

World Commission on Dams (2000) Dams and development: A new framework for decision-making. The Report of the World Commission on Dams. Earthscan Publications Ltd, London and Sterling, VA

WRI (1990) “Forest and rangelands.” In: A Guide to the Global Environment. World Resources Institute, Washington DC pp 101-120

World Tourism Organization (2001) Tourism industry trends. Industry Science Resources

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