Planetary boundaries: Exploring the safe operating space for humanity
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We are lucky enough to have some fantastic individuals summarise insightful research, and we will be regularly introducing the reports.
This week’s research in the spotlight explores the nine planetary boundaries approach to global sustainability.
Overview
The nine planetary boundaries are a framework mapping the safe limits for humanity to avoid the effects of unacceptable human-induced environmental change. Unacceptable environmental change is the risk humanity faces in the transition of the planet from the Holocene (the desired planetary state developed over the past 10 000 years) to the Anthropocene (the Earth’s current state since the industrial revolution).
Alarmingly, the article proposes that the planetary boundaries are already exceeded for climate change, biodiversity loss and the global nitrogen cycle. The article, however, is from 2009 and in 2015 scientists added land-system change. Today, four planetary boundaries have been crossed.
The article makes the ethical case for the importance of environmental stewardship by defining the safe limits of human development in the face of unacceptable human-induced environmental change.
The report supports the economic case towards sustainable finance by offering a framework to conceive and comprehend the ecological impacts of alarming anthropocentric development. The framework of the nine planetary boundaries can be used to support, enhance and rethink how governance and management are approached in organisations, locally and globally.
The planetary boundaries must be understood as interconnected and interdependent parts within the whole Earth System. The Earth System is a self-regulating set of the biophysical boundaries which sustain humanity. A transgression in one boundary will result in consequences for the others. For example, at the regional scale, deforestation in the Amazon in a changing climate regime may have consequences in Asia by changing rainfall patterns and therefore water resource availability in the region.
The nine planetary boundaries identified in the table below cover the global biogeochemical cycles of nitrogen, phosphorus, carbon, and water; the major physical circulation systems of the planet (the climate, stratosphere, ocean systems); biophysical features of Earth that contribute to the underlying resilience of its self-regulatory capacity (marine and terrestrial biodiversity, land systems); and two critical features associated with anthropogenic global change (aerosol loading and chemical pollution). There is enough scientific evidence to make a preliminary, first attempt at quantifying control variables for seven of these boundaries. The remaining two (aerosol loading and chemical pollution), should be included among the planetary boundaries, but research is unable to suggest quantitative boundary levels at this time.
The planetary boundaries approach offers a unique contribution to research by focusing on the biophysical processes of the Earth System that determine the self-regulating capacity of the planet. Understanding the boundaries will identify the ways in which humanity can maintain themselves within the limits to secure a sustainable future.
The report identifies the need for further research to address the knowledge gaps in analysing the risks and uncertainties in the thresholds of the Earth System. Only through understanding the interconnectedness of the nine planetary boundaries will humanity know how to manage the Earth’s vulnerabilities.
