text: FIGURE 1. The Holocene up to 1900 was characterized by exceptional stability in the environment, climate, and humanity. On average, changes per century were moderate. During the last hundred years, the extreme increase in energy usage has sustained a rapid population growth, facilitated the concentration of wealth in increasingly fewer hands, and initiated the transition out of the “safe operating space” of the Holocene into the Post-Holocene. As a consequence, the future of our kids and grandkids is highly uncertain. Graphics prepared by Shelley Jules-Plag.