Planetary Boundaries: Exploring the Safe Operating Space for Humanity

• Published in: Ecology and Society
• Main Authors: Johan Rockström, Will Steffen, Kevin Noone, Åsa Persson, F. Stuart III Chapin, Eric Lambin, Timothy M. Lenton, Marten Scheffer, Carl Folke, Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, Björn Nykvist, Cynthia A. de Wit, Terry Hughes, Sander van der Leeuw, Henning Rodhe, Sverker Sörlin, Peter K. Snyder, Robert Costanza, Uno Svedin, Malin Falkenmark, Louise Karlberg, Robert W. Corell, Victoria J. Fabry, James Hansen, Brian Walker, Diana Liverman, Katherine Richardson, Paul Crutzen, Jonathan Foley
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Resilience Alliance 2009
• Subjects: atmospheric aerosol loading; biogeochemical nitrogen cycle; biological diversity; chemical pollution; climate change; Earth; global freshwater use; land system change; ocean acidification; phosphorus cycle; planetary boundaries; stratospheric ozone; sustainability; Biology (General); QH301-705.5; Ecology; QH540-549.5; Ocean acidification
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-03180-140232; https://doaj.org/article/1164a01628b4422fb0721db6d3dd95a3

Anthropogenic pressures on the Earth System have reached a scale where abrupt global environmental change can no longer be excluded. We propose a new approach to global sustainability in which we define planetary boundaries within which we expect that humanity can operate safely. Transgressing one or more planetary boundaries may be deleterious or even catastrophic due to the risk of crossing thresholds that will trigger non-linear, abrupt environmental change within continental- to planetary-scale systems. We have identified nine planetary boundaries and, drawing upon current scientific understanding, we propose quantifications for seven of them. These seven are climate change (CO2 concentration in the atmosphere