• The second half of the 20th Century is unique in the history of human existence. Many human activites reached take-off points sometime in the 20th Century and sharply accelerated towards the end of the century.
• The last 60 years have without doubt seen the most profound transformation of the human relationship with the natural world in the history of humankind.

Great acceleration :-

• The Great Accelerationrefers to the most recent period of the Anthropocene during which the rate of impact of human activity upon the Earth’s geology and ecosystems is increasing significantly. While the Anthropocene commenced with Industrial Revolution if not long before, the Great Acceleration begins in the 20th century with the acceleration rate dramatically increasing after the Second World War.
• Great Acceleration is a unique event in the 4.5 billion-year history of our planet with exploding human population and economic growth driving unprecedented planetary change through the increased demand for energy, land and water.
• It is the exponential growth over the last 50 years in the use of energy, water, timber, fish, food, fertiliser, pesticides, minerals, plastics etc

Impact on wild fauna :-

• Species disappearing
  1. The index of extinction risk for five major groups birds, mammals, amphibians, corals and an ancient family of plants called cycads  shows an accelerating slide towards oblivion.
  2. From 1970 to 2014, 60% of all animals with a backbone like fish, birds, amphibians, reptiles and mammals were wiped out by human appetites and activity, according to WWF’s “Living Planet” report, based on a survey of more than 4,000 species spread over 16,700 populations scattered across the world.
• Boundaries breached:-
  1. Humans have clearly breached two of the so-called planetary boundaries: species loss, and imbalances in Earth’s natural cycles of nitrogen and phosphorous (mainly due to fertiliser use).
  2. Ocean acidification and freshwater supply are not far behind.
  3. More generally, the marginal capacity of Earth’s ecosystems to renew themselves has been far outstripped by humanity’s ecological footprint, which has nearly tripled in 50 years.
• Forests shrinking :-Nearly 20% of the Amazon rainforest, the world’s largest, has disappeared in five decades. Tropical deforestation continues unabated, mainly to make way for soy beans, palm oil and cattle.
• Oceans depleted
  1. Since 1950, Humans have extracted 6 billion tonnes of fish, crustaceans, clams, squids and other edible sea creatures.
  2. Climate change and pollution have killed off half of the world’s shallow water coral reefs, which support more than a quarter of marine life.
  3. Coastal mangrove forests, which protect against storm surges made worse by rising seas, have also declined by up to half over the last 50 years.