Ecology and Society (Dec 2009)
Planetary Boundaries: Exploring the Safe Operating Space for Humanity
- 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
Affiliations
- Johan Rockström
- Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University
- Will Steffen
- Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University
- Kevin Noone
- Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University
- Åsa Persson
- Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University
- F. Stuart III Chapin
- Institute of Arctic Biology, University of Alaska Fairbanks
- Eric Lambin
- Department of Geography, University of Louvain
- Timothy M. Lenton
- School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia
- Marten Scheffer
- Aquatic Ecology and Water Quality Management Group, Wageningen University
- Carl Folke
- Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University
- Hans Joachim Schellnhuber
- Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research
- Björn Nykvist
- Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University
- Cynthia A. de Wit
- Department of Applied Environmental Science, Stockholm University
- Terry Hughes
- ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University
- Sander van der Leeuw
- School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University
- Henning Rodhe
- Department of Meteorology, Stockholm University
- Sverker Sörlin
- Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University
- Peter K. Snyder
- Department of Soil, Water, and Climate, University of Minnesota
- Robert Costanza
- Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University
- Uno Svedin
- Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University
- Malin Falkenmark
- Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University
- Louise Karlberg
- Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University
- Robert W. Corell
- The H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics and the Environment
- Victoria J. Fabry
- Department of Biological Sciences, California State University San Marcos
- James Hansen
- NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies
- Brian Walker
- Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University
- Diana Liverman
- Environmental Change Institute, School of Geography and the Environment
- Katherine Richardson
- Earth System Science Centre, University of Copenhagen
- Paul Crutzen
- Max Planck Institute for Chemistry
- Jonathan Foley
- Institute on the Environment, University of Minnesota
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-03180-140232
- Journal volume & issue
-
Vol. 14,
no. 2
p. 32
Abstract
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
Keywords
- 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
