The graphs presented in “Steffen et al. (2015). The trajectory of the Anthropocene: The Great Acceleration.” show the trends from 1750 to 2010 in indicators for socio-economic development and structure and functioning of the Earth System.

a. [5 pts] Analyze the trends in the data and formulate a hypothesis that could be tested to investigate the relationship between the socio-economic trends and potential impacts on the Earth system.

b. [5 pts] Based on the data provided in the figure and content covered in class, do you have enough evidence to accept the hypothesis? Or should you reject the hypothesis? Explain.

c. [5 pts] Independently of your answer in “b”, explain the differences between the Holocene and Anthropocene epochs using the data provided in the figure.