ABSTRACT
A layer of radioactive materials deposited in soils across the globe since 1945 as a result of nuclear weapons deployment and testing marks a decisive geological moment of Earth transformation in the Anthropocene. The period after World War II is referred to as the 'Great Acceleration' or second phase of the Anthropocene – and is characterised by dramatic increases in population growth, industrialisation, urbanisation, consumption and technoscientific development. The thermonuclear anxiety of the Cold War was a harbinger of one of the key motifs of the Anthropocene thesis: the human reduced to a fossil trace. The Anthropocene thesis faces serious obstacle, however, in capturing humanity's collective imagination: the problem of cataclysm burnout. In a culture replete with doomsday scenarios, there is always the danger that humanity has already learnt to stop worrying and has come to feel at home with, if not love, the bomb.
