Environmental historians speak of the “great acceleration” that has been driving the radical transformation in humanity’s relationship with our natural habitat.11 They date the moment of takeoff to 1945, with a further acceleration in the 1970s. Despite the signs of a return to something like normality in 2021, the great acceleration is the right historical frame within which to situate the 2020 moment: an exceptional and transient crisis, no doubt, but also a way station on an ascending curve of radical change.
