As Environment is a relational concept (existing in the interactions between humans and biophysical systems), the globalization of human impacts on biophysical systems has resulted not only in a quantitative magnification of those impacts, but in a qualitative shift in the conceptualization and experience of the environment. Contrary to its historical perception, specifically, people now view the environment predominantly as a global rather than a local phenomenon. For this shift in spatial scale to occur, science had to recognize that biophysical processes operate globally and that human actions are modifying these global systems. The public also had to recognize these concepts. The post-1945 period of globalization of the environment corresponds with the timeframe of the Great Acceleration, as the economic growth of this period caused both global environmental changes and the technology and scientific advances needed to detect them. This article articulates a viewpoint that human activities have made the environment global, resulting from positive feedbacks among biophysical and human systems.

作为环境是一个关系概念（存在于人类和生物物理系统之间的相互作用中），人类对生物物理系统影响的全球化不仅导致了这些影响的量化放大，而且导致了环境概念和体验的质的转变。与其历史认知相反，具体而言，人们现在主要将环境视为全球现象而不是局部现象。为了发生这种空间尺度的转变，科学必须认识到生物物理过程在全球范围内运作，而人类行为正在改变这些全球系统。公众也必须认识到这些概念。1945 年后的环境全球化时期与大加速时期相对应，由于这一时期的经济增长导致全球环境变化以及检测它们所需的技术和科学进步。本文阐述了一种观点，即人类活动使环境全球化，这是由于生物物理和人类系统之间的积极反馈。