Security concerns during the early Cold War prompted United States strategists to solicit worldwide assistance in studying Earth’s physical environment. Comprehensive geophysical knowledge required cooperation between researchers on every part of the planet, leading practitioners to tout transnational earth science – despite direct military applications in an age of submarines and ballistic missiles – as a non-political form of peaceful universalism. This article examines the 1957–58 International Geophysical Year as a powerful fulcrum in the transfer of ideas about Earth’s global environment from Western security establishments to conservationists worldwide. For eighteen months, tens of thousands of researchers across every continent pooled resources for data collection to create a scientific benchmark for future comparisons. Illuminating Earth as dynamic and interconnected, participants robustly conceptualized humanity’s emergence as a geophysical force, capable of ‘artificially’ modifying the natural world. Studies of anthropogenic geophysics, including satellites, nuclear fallout, and climate change, conditioned the global rise of environmentalism.

中文翻译：

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环境基准：1950 年代全球大科学和“人工”地球物理学

冷战初期的安全问题促使美国战略家在研究地球物理环境方面寻求全球援助。全面的地球物理知识需要地球各地研究人员之间的合作，这导致从业者将跨国地球科学——尽管在潜艇和弹道导弹时代直接应用于军事——吹捧为和平普遍主义的非政治形式。本文将 1957-58 年国际地球物理年视为西方安全机构向世界范围内的环保主义者转移地球全球环境观念的强大支点。十八个月来，各大洲成千上万的研究人员汇集资源进行数据收集，为未来的比较创建科学基准。参与者将地球照亮为动态且相互关联的，他们有力地将人类的出现概念化为一种地球物理力量，能够“人为地”改变自然世界。包括卫星、核辐射和气候变化在内的人为地球物理学研究促成了全球环保主义的兴起。