Planetary Boundaries: Introduction

In 2009, an international group of Earth System scientists and environmental scientists developed a framework called the Planetary Boundaries (PBs), a set of environmental limits to illustrate Earth's limited capacity to absorb and buffer environmental changes as a result of human activities. The report and its edited summary identified 9 environmental limits, quantified 7, and found 4 to already be transgressed. All these boundaries are interdependent. In a 2015 update, 3 planetary boundaries were proposed to have a pervasive influence on the remaining boundaries, and might push Earth into a new, unpredictable state if crossed.

Planetary Boundaries. (Source: Science)

These boundaries define a safe operating space for humanity for several biophysical processes which regulate the stability of the Earth System.

Professor Johan Rockström, lead author of the 2009 paper, gave a TED talk in 2010 entitled "Let the environment guide our development". This is a good introduction to our current state of affairs, and where the PBs come in. I have embedded this entertaining, provocative, and informative video below.

The 2009 paper was radical for its bold attempt to quantify environmental interactions and tipping points, and for its strong position on comparing global transgressions on one diagram. Rockström wanted the concept to influence not just environmental politics, but foreign policy too: staying within the PBs should be a "top geopolitical priority today".

PBs attracted a lot of attention, citations and criticisms alike. It inspired numerous international science-policy initiatives. The 2010 UN High-Panel Level on Sustainability report included policy recommendations linking PBs with international policy. The EEA 2010 State of the Environment Report referred to PBs as a future environmental priority.

I believe they're worth investigating.

(PBs: Personal Boundaries?)