Planetary Boundaries
Definition
The concept of Planetary Boundaries posits that Earth system processes critical for maintaining the stable state of the Holocene, such as biosphere integrity, land-use change and climate change may be being influenced by human activity. This concept allows to estimate a safe operating space for humanity with respect to the functioning of the Earth. The boundary level for each key Earth System process that should not be transgressed if we are to avoid unacceptable global environmental change, is quantified.
The planetary boundaries framework defines a safe operating space for humanity within the boundaries of nine productive ecological capacities of the planet.
- Biosphere Integrity
- Genetic Diversity
- Climate Change
- Novel Entities
- Stratospheric Ozone Depletion
- Atmospheric Aerosol Loading
- Ocean Acidification
- Biochemical Flows
- Land-system Change
- Freshwater Usage
Although not all these processes have definable single thresholds, crossing the boundaries increases the risk of large-scale, potentially irreversible, environmental changes [1].
References
- ↑ Rockström et al. 2009; Steffen et al. 2015
