The world is comprised of numerous interacting systems – oceans, ice sheets, climate system and ecosystems. For thousands of years these have been in a stable state able to support human life. But these are complex systems. If we push these systems too far then they may reach ‘tipping points’ and abruptly flip into other states that are unable to support human life as we know it
Breaking Boundaries is a Netflix documentary, released in June 2021, explaining the concept of planetary systems and boundaries marking out a safe operating space for humanity, and the catastrophic implications if we step outside of that space.
We have been living within the boundaries for for over 10,000 years during a stable geological period named The Holocene. But human activity is now accelerating us over the boundaries.
Some of the consequences are well known, for instance how increasing concentrations of Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere will lead to a rise in global temperatures.
Others are not precisely known. But they have two characteristics which make them dangerous for humanity – they are nonlinear (small inputs which formerly produced small changes suddenly begin generating massive changes), and they can be irreversible – like stepping over a cliff edge!
The documentary is presented by Sir Richard Attenborough and Professor Johan Rockström of The Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.
Rockström identifies nine planetary boundaries:
- Climate change
- Biodiversity
- Biogeochemicals – Nitrogen and Phosphorus
- Ocean acidification
- Land use
- Fresh water
- Ozone
- Atmospheric aerosols
- Toxic substances
He describes the nature of the boundaries, how they are measured, and the consequences of crossing them.
Detailed calculations of the boundary limits are described in Planetary Boundaries: Exploring the Safe Operating Space for Humanity [1]
These have also been summarised in “The nine boundaries humanity must respect to keep the planet habitable” [2]
It is striking to see that adopting a vegan lifestyle can be an important step to staying within most of these boundaries and in the following posts I plan to look at why this is the case.
References
[1] https://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol14/iss2/art32, 2009
[2] https://news.mongabay.com/2021/03/the-nine-boundaries-humanity-must-respect-to-keep-the-planet-habitable, 2021
