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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/sep/13/earth-well-outside-safe-operating-space-for-humanity-scientists-find>
"Earth’s life support systems have been so damaged that the planet is “well
outside the safe operating space for humanity”, scientists have warned.
Their assessment found that six out of nine “planetary boundaries” had been
broken because of human-caused pollution and destruction of the natural world.
The planetary boundaries are the limits of key global systems – such as
climate, water and wildlife diversity – beyond which their ability to maintain
a healthy planet is in danger of failing.
The broken boundaries mean the systems have been driven far from the safe and
stable state that existed from the end of the last ice age, about 10,000 years
ago, to the start of the industrial revolution. The whole of modern
civilisation arose in this time period, called the Holocene.
The assessment was the first of all nine planetary boundaries and represented
the “first scientific health check for the entire planet”, the researchers
said. Six boundaries have been passed and two are judged to be close to being
broken: air pollution and ocean acidification. The one boundary that is not
threatened is atmospheric ozone, after action to phase out destructive
chemicals in recent decades led to the ozone hole shrinking.
The scientists said the “most worrying” finding was that all four of the
biological boundaries, which cover the living world, were at, or close to, the
highest risk level. The living world is particularly vital to the Earth as it
provides resilience by compensating for some physical changes, for example,
trees absorbing carbon dioxide pollution.
The planetary boundaries are not irreversible tipping points beyond which
sudden and serious deterioration occurs, the scientists said. Instead, they are
points after which the risks of fundamental changes in the Earth’s physical,
biological and chemical life support systems rise significantly. The planetary
boundaries were first devised in 2009 and updated in 2015, when only seven
could be assessed.
Prof Johan Rockström, the then director of the Stockholm Resilience Centre who
led the team that developed the boundaries framework, said: “Science and the
world at large are really concerned over all the extreme climate events hitting
societies across the planet. But what worries us, even more, is the rising
signs of dwindling planetary resilience.”"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
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mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
