The "Great Acceleration" graphs, originally published in 2004 to show socioeconomic and Earth System trends from 1750 to 2000, have now been updated to 2010. In the graphs of socioeconomic trends, where the data permit, the activity of the wealthy (OECD) countries, those countries with emerging economies, and the rest of the world have now been differentiated. The dominant feature of the socioeconomic trends is that the economic activity of the human enterprise continues to grow at a rapid rate. However, the differentiated graphs clearly show that strong equity issues are masked by considering global aggregates only. Most of the population growth since 1950 has been in the non-OECD world but the world's economy (GDP), and hence consumption, is still strongly dominated by the OECD world. The Earth System indicators, in general, continued their long-term, postindustrial rise, although a few, such as atmospheric methane concentration and stratospheric ozone loss, showed a slowing or stabilisation over the past decade. The post-1950 acceleration in the Earth System indicators remains clear. Only beyond the mid-20 th century is there clear evidence for fundamental shifts in the state and functioning of the Earth System that are beyond the range of variability of the Holocene and driven by human activities. Thus, of all the candidates for a start date for the Anthropocene, the beginning of the Great Acceleration is by far the most convincing from an Earth System science perspective.

Multiple, coordinated goals and holistic actions are critical

Abstract. In this paper we show evidence that isoprene emission from the oceans is strongly seasonally dependent and is correlated with the chlorophyll content of the water from measurements in the North Sea and Southern Ocean. We estimate the seasonally averaged flux of isoprene to the atmosphere to be 1.7 x 107 molecules cm '2 s '•, which may be significant for atmospheric chemistry in locations remote from land as it is the only known source of atmospheric isoprene in these regions. We observe a strong seasonal cycle of several other NMHCs in seawater at high latitudes, with a maximum in summer. This will distort current estimates of the annual marine flux of NMHCs to the atmosphere which may need to be reduced by up to an order of magnitude to account for lower emissions in winter.

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