Articles | Volume 7, issue 2
https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-7-353-2016
© Author(s) 2016. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Special issue:
https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-7-353-2016
© Author(s) 2016. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Research article
| Highlight paper
| 
22 Apr 2016
Research article | Highlight paper |
| 22 Apr 2016
Revolutions in energy input and material cycling in Earth history and human history
Timothy M. Lenton
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Earth System Science, College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK
Peter-Paul Pichler
Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Potsdam, Germany
Helga Weisz
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Potsdam, Germany
Department of Cultural History and Theory and Department of Social Sciences, Humboldt University Berlin, Berlin, Germany
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34 citations as recorded by crossref.
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- The re-direction of small deposit mining: Technological solutions for raw materials supply security in a whole systems context K. Moore et al. 10.1016/j.rcrx.2020.100040
34 citations as recorded by crossref.
- Contributions of sociometabolic research to sustainability science H. Haberl et al. 10.1038/s41893-019-0225-2
- Whose house is on fire? Identifying socio-demographic and housing characteristics driving differences in the UK household CO2 emissions A. Schuster et al. 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2023.107764
- Impact of Green Total Factor Productivity in Marine Economy Based on Entropy Method D. Wu 10.2478/pomr-2018-0123
- Making sense of circular economy: Understanding the progression from idea to action F. Blomsma et al. 10.1002/bse.3107
- The energy expansions of evolution O. Judson 10.1038/s41559-017-0138
- Scenarios for combating global warming: China's critical role as a leader in the energy transition D. Schwartzman & P. Schwartzman 10.3934/energy.2024038
- Derailment risk: A systems analysis that identifies risks which could derail the sustainability transition L. Laybourn et al. 10.5194/esd-14-1171-2023
- The Anthropocene Generalized: Evolution of Exo-Civilizations and Their Planetary Feedback A. Frank et al. 10.1089/ast.2017.1671
- Earth system modeling with endogenous and dynamic human societies: the copan:CORE open World–Earth modeling framework J. Donges et al. 10.5194/esd-11-395-2020
- Can the 1.5 ℃ warming target be met in a global transition to 100% renewable energy? P. Schwartzman & D. Schwartzman 10.3934/energy.2021054
- Energy transitions and social revolutions M. Fischer-Kowalski et al. 10.1016/j.techfore.2018.08.010
- From dollars to Joules: Integrating energetics into economic theory O. Schlaudt 10.1016/j.shpsa.2025.05.001
- Global Future: Low-Carbon Economy or High-Carbon Economy? D. Lugo-Morin 10.3390/world2020012
- Taxonomies for structuring models for World–Earth systems analysis of the Anthropocene: subsystems, their interactions and social–ecological feedback loops J. Donges et al. 10.5194/esd-12-1115-2021
- Prospects for a saturation of humanity’s resource use? An analysis of material stocks and flows in nine world regions from 1900 to 2035 D. Wiedenhofer et al. 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2021.102410
- Spread of the cycles: a feedback perspective on the Anthropocene T. Lenton & M. Scheffer 10.1098/rstb.2022.0254
- An Ecosocialist Perspective on Gaia 2.0: The Other World That is Still Possible D. Schwartzman 10.1080/10455752.2020.1729943
- Innovating e-waste management: From macroscopic to microscopic scales X. Zeng et al. 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.09.078
- Assessing the heterogeneous impacts of energy consumption on human development of G7 by employing advanced quantile panel data estimation A. Pham et al. 10.1016/j.gr.2023.08.001
- Virtual carbon emissions in the big cities of middle-income countries M. Hachaichi & T. Baouni 10.1016/j.uclim.2021.100986
- Exploring the nexuses between carbon dioxide emissions, material footprints and human development: An empirical study of 151 countries H. Xu et al. 10.1016/j.ecolind.2024.112229
- The Case for a New Discipline: Technosphere Science C. Herrmann-Pillath 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2018.03.024
- Volcanic phosphorus spikes associated with supercontinent assembly supported the evolution of land plants C. Ma et al. 10.1016/j.earscirev.2022.104101
- Research process and prospects on the thermal effects of gas adsorption and desorption in coal rocks Q. Ye et al. 10.1007/s10973-025-14010-4
- Maximum power in evolution, ecology and economics C. Hall & T. McWhirter 10.1098/rsta.2022.0290
- Fabrication of Fe-doped biochar for Pb adsorption through pyrolysis of agricultural waste with red mud J. Lee et al. 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2024.143930
- Giving depth to the surface: An exercise in the Gaia-graphy of critical zones A. Arènes et al. 10.1177/2053019618782257
- How greedy is too greedy? A network toy model for evaluating the sustainability of biased evolutionary dynamics V. Weinberger et al. 10.1098/rstb.2022.0260
- A Dynamic Network Model of Societal Complexity and Resilience Inspired by Tainter’s Theory of Collapse F. Schunck et al. 10.3390/e26020098
- Selection for Gaia across Multiple Scales T. Lenton et al. 10.1016/j.tree.2018.05.006
- Applications of Solar Energy: History, Sociology and last Trends in Investigation D. Bravo Hidalgo et al. 10.22507/pml.v13n2a3
- Innovations, Sustainable Growth and Energetics: Is Leap of Civilization Possible? V. Milovidov 10.17323/2500-2597.2019.1.62.68
- Energy business transformation & Earth system resilience: A metabolic approach M. Wainstein et al. 10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.12.258
- The re-direction of small deposit mining: Technological solutions for raw materials supply security in a whole systems context K. Moore et al. 10.1016/j.rcrx.2020.100040
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Short summary
We identify six past revolutions in energy input and material cycling in Earth and human history. We find that human energy use has now reached a magnitude comparable to the biosphere, and conclude that a prospective sustainability revolution will require scaling up new solar energy technologies and the development of much more efficient material recycling systems. Our work was inspired by recognising the connections between Earth system science and industrial ecology at the "LOOPS" workshop.
We identify six past revolutions in energy input and material cycling in Earth and human...
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