Great Acceleration
E87432
The Great Acceleration is the post–World War II surge in human population, economic activity, and resource use that has dramatically intensified human impacts on Earth’s environment and climate.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Great Acceleration canonical | 2 |
| Great Acceleration period | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T742182 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Great Acceleration Context triple: [Holocene, containsEvent, Great Acceleration]
-
A.
Anthropocene
The Anthropocene is a proposed geological epoch characterized by the dominant global impact of human activities on Earth's climate, ecosystems, and geology.
-
B.
The World’s Progress
The World’s Progress is a comprehensive reference work compiled by American publisher George Palmer Putnam that surveys major events, discoveries, and developments throughout world history.
-
C.
Malthusian catastrophe
A Malthusian catastrophe is a theoretical scenario in which unchecked population growth outstrips food production, leading to widespread famine, disease, and social collapse.
-
D.
Illusions of Progress
Illusions of Progress is a political and social critique by Georges Sorel that challenges optimistic beliefs in linear social advancement and rational reform.
-
E.
Evolving Planet
Evolving Planet is a permanent exhibition at Chicago’s Field Museum that traces the history of life on Earth, from its origins through the age of dinosaurs to the present.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Great Acceleration Target entity description: The Great Acceleration is the post–World War II surge in human population, economic activity, and resource use that has dramatically intensified human impacts on Earth’s environment and climate.
-
A.
Anthropocene
The Anthropocene is a proposed geological epoch characterized by the dominant global impact of human activities on Earth's climate, ecosystems, and geology.
-
B.
The World’s Progress
The World’s Progress is a comprehensive reference work compiled by American publisher George Palmer Putnam that surveys major events, discoveries, and developments throughout world history.
-
C.
Malthusian catastrophe
A Malthusian catastrophe is a theoretical scenario in which unchecked population growth outstrips food production, leading to widespread famine, disease, and social collapse.
-
D.
Illusions of Progress
Illusions of Progress is a political and social critique by Georges Sorel that challenges optimistic beliefs in linear social advancement and rational reform.
-
E.
Evolving Planet
Evolving Planet is a permanent exhibition at Chicago’s Field Museum that traces the history of life on Earth, from its origins through the age of dinosaurs to the present.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (60)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Anthropocene concept
ⓘ
historical period ⓘ socio-environmental phenomenon ⓘ |
| appliesTo | global scale ⓘ |
| associatedWith |
consumer society
ⓘ
fossil fuel combustion ⓘ global North ⓘ industrialized countries ⓘ |
| hasCause |
fossil fuel–based energy systems
ⓘ
globalization of trade ⓘ population growth ⓘ postwar economic expansion ⓘ rapid industrialization ⓘ technological innovation ⓘ |
| hasEffect |
accelerated climate change
ⓘ
alteration of biogeochemical cycles ⓘ deforestation ⓘ expansion of human ecological footprint ⓘ growth of global economy ⓘ growth of global transportation networks ⓘ growth of industrial agriculture ⓘ growth of megacities ⓘ increased energy consumption ⓘ increased frequency of environmental crises ⓘ increased greenhouse gas emissions ⓘ increased human impact on the Earth system ⓘ increased material consumption ⓘ increased nitrogen cycle disruption ⓘ increased phosphorus cycle disruption ⓘ increased pollution ⓘ increased resource extraction ⓘ increased water use ⓘ land-use change ⓘ loss of wilderness areas ⓘ ocean acidification ⓘ plastic pollution ⓘ rapid biodiversity loss ⓘ stratospheric ozone depletion (historically) ⓘ urbanization ⓘ |
| hasPart |
rapid economic growth
ⓘ
rapid increase in communication networks ⓘ rapid increase in industrial production ⓘ rapid increase in resource use ⓘ rapid increase in transportation activity ⓘ rapid population growth ⓘ rapid technological change ⓘ |
| hasStartTime |
circa 1945
ⓘ
post–World War II era ⓘ |
| isCharacterizedBy |
exponential growth curves in Earth system indicators
ⓘ
exponential growth curves in socio-economic indicators ⓘ |
| isDescribedBy |
Earth system science literature
ⓘ
global change research ⓘ |
| isPartOf | Anthropocene ⓘ |
| mainSubject |
climate system forcing
ⓘ
global environmental change ⓘ human–environment interactions ⓘ |
| temporalLocation |
early 21st century
ⓘ
second half of the 20th century ⓘ |
| usedAsEvidenceFor |
human dominance of the Earth system
ⓘ
onset of the Anthropocene ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Great Acceleration Description of subject: The Great Acceleration is the post–World War II surge in human population, economic activity, and resource use that has dramatically intensified human impacts on Earth’s environment and climate.
Referenced by (3)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
Great Acceleration period