Earth beyond six of nine planetary boundaries

This planetary boundaries framework update finds that six of the nine boundaries are transgressed, suggesting that Earth is now well outside of the safe operating space for humanity. Ocean acidification is close to being breached, while aerosol loading regionally exceeds the boundary. Stratospheric...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science Advances
Main Authors: Richardson, Katherine, Steffen, Will, Lucht, Wolfgang, Bendtsen, Jørgen, Cornell, Sarah E., Donges, Jonathan F., Drüke, Markus, Fetzer, Ingo, Bala, Govindasamy, von Bloh, Werner, Feulner, Georg, Fiedler, Stephanie, Gerten, Dieter, Gleeson, Tom, Hofmann, Matthias, Huiskamp, Willem, Kummu, Matti, Mohan, Chinchu, Nogués-Bravo, David, Petri, Stefan, Porkka, Miina, Rahmstorf, Stefan, Schaphoff, Sibyll, Thonicke, Kirsten, Tobian, Arne, Virkki, Vili, Wang-Erlandsson, Lan, Weber, Lisa, Rockström, Johan
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: 2023
Subjects:
Online Access:https://curis.ku.dk/portal/da/publications/earth-beyond-six-of-nine-planetary-boundaries(f3a0b586-eb4e-4645-a2c9-033c5c2986b8).html
https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adh2458
https://curis.ku.dk/ws/files/372326014/sciadv.adh2458.pdf
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Summary:This planetary boundaries framework update finds that six of the nine boundaries are transgressed, suggesting that Earth is now well outside of the safe operating space for humanity. Ocean acidification is close to being breached, while aerosol loading regionally exceeds the boundary. Stratospheric ozone levels have slightly recovered. The transgression level has increased for all boundaries earlier identified as overstepped. As primary production drives Earth system biosphere functions, human appropriation of net primary production is proposed as a control variable for functional biosphere integrity. This boundary is also transgressed. Earth system modeling of different levels of the transgression of the climate and land system change boundaries illustrates that these anthropogenic impacts on Earth system must be considered in a systemic context.