2019-12-06

[public] 239K views, 11.4K likes, dislikes audio only

MinuteEarth

Thanks to the University of Minnesota for sponsoring this video! http://twin-cities.umn.edu/

We’re in the middle of a rapid, unprecedented, and world-changing increase in the intensity and scale of human activity on this planet.

Thanks also to our Patreon patrons https://www.patreon.com/MinuteEarth and our YouTube members.

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To learn more, start your googling with these keywords:

The Great Acceleration - the dramatic increase in human activity, largely since 1950, that is evident across a variety of socio-economic and biophysical measures, and that has made humans into a planetary scale force

The Anthropocene - our current geological epoch (contested), beginning when humans first had significant impact on Earth's geology and ecosystems

Hockey stick graph - typically refers to the Mann et al 1999 graph of Earth’s temperature, but can also refer to any trend that's roughly constant for a long duration and then has a drastic upwards shift

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If you liked this week’s video, you might also like:

Welcome to the Anthropocene film - https://vimeo.com/39048998

Animated map of last 200,000 years of human population - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUwmA3Q0_OE

The history of emissions and the Great Acceleration - https://skepticalscience.com/EmmissionsAcceleration.html

The Hockey Stick Controversy - https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/05/the-hockey-stick-the-most-controversial-chart-in-science-explained/275753/

An argument for 'why growth can’t be green’ - https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/09/12/why-growth-cant-be-green/#

Can we stabilize Earth, or are we going to cross planetary thresholds? - www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1810141115

An attainable global vision for conservation and human well-being - https://www.nature.org/content/dam/tnc/nature/en/documents/TNC_AnAttainableGlobalVision_Frontiers.pdf

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Credits (and Twitter handles):

Script Writer, Editor and Video Narrator: Alex Reich (@alexhreich)

Video Director and Illustrator: Henry Reich (@MinutePhysics)

With Contributions From: Kate Yoshida, Ever Salazar, Peter Reich, David Goldenberg, Julián Gómez, Sarah Berman, Arcadi Garcia

Music by: Nathaniel Schroeder: http://www.soundcloud.com/drschroeder

Image Credits: Hockey stick graph: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:T_comp_61-90.pdf by Klaus Bittermann. Used with permission.

Copper graph based on: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peak_copper#/media/File:Copper_-_world_production_trend.svg

Life expectancy graph: https://ourworldindata.org/life-expectancy

CO2 graph: https://rateofchange.substack.com/p/the-rate-of-change-july-15-2019

Girl receiving oral polio vaccine: https://www.flickr.com/photos/cdcglobal/8190819087 No changes were made.

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References:

Barnosky, A. D., et al. 2014. Introducing the scientific consensus on maintaining humanity’s life support systems in the 21st century: Information for policy makers. The Anthropocene Review, 1(1), 78-109. http://bit.ly/34rguHz

IGPB. 2015. Great Acceleration. http://www.igbp.net/globalchange/greatacceleration.4.1b8ae20512db692f2a680001630.html Accessed Aug 2019.

Hellmann, J. Aug 2019. Personal communication.

Mann, M. E., et al. 1999. Northern hemisphere temperatures during the past millennium: Inferences, uncertainties, and limitations. Geophysical Research Letters, 26(6), 759-762. https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1029/1999GL900070.

McNeill, J.R. Oct 2019. Personal communication.

McNeill, J. R. 2001. Something new under the sun: An environmental history of the twentieth-century world (the global century series). WW Norton & Company.

Roser, M. 2019. Life Expectancy. Our World In Data. https://ourworldindata.org/life-expectancy Accessed Sept 2019.

Phillipon, D. Aug 2019. Personal communication.

Polasky, S. Sept 2019. Personal communication.

Steffen, W. et al. 2015. The trajectory of the Anthropocene: the great acceleration. The Anthropocene Review, 2(1), 81-98. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F2053019614564785

Thompson et al. 2009. Our plastic age. 364. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2009.0054