To understand the planetary boundaries it is important to know a little bit about the origin of the world. Therefore I will show you a tiny fraction of the Earth’s timeline and put it into the planetary boundary perspective. Here we go: We call the fifth largest planet of our solar system our home: Planet Earth. Being only 4.54 billion years old, it is the third child in the solar system, Jupiter and Mars are Earth’s two older siblings by approximately 60 million years. About 3.7 billion years ago the first forms of life appeared and laid the foundation to support life. I bet the other planet siblings are jealous of this child prodigy, as Earth is the only planet in the universe known to hold life.

It must have been a wild ride, evolving from simple, single-celled organisms to more complex organisms – up to 8.7 million different kinds of species (according to an estimate by scientific professionals). In between, Earth was also populated by dinosaurs. It is amazing that from a single cell (unicellular organism) we can now experience the natural diversity on Earth. Not only did life on earth continuously change, but around 3 billion years ago, “soon” after Earth was formed, continents began to emerge. Over billions of years, the Earth’s surface changed significantly, enabling different life forms to evolve and populate the land, the water and the air.

Alright, the point is that over a very, very long period of time living and non-living things evolved and disappeared, which lead to the creation of a vast diversity of ecosystems. Ecosystems which have characteristics such as being complex, fulfilling specific functions, natural diversity and boundaries. Some ecosystems depend on outer space energy like the sun, others created their own sort of energy like those found in deep waters.

In our world there is no one size fits all solution

When it comes to understanding ecosystems, there is no one size fits all solution, because ecosystems developed in different and specific ways. We can never be 100% certain of understanding an ecosystem as a whole and neglecting ecosystems, in general, is a foolhardy human arrogance. During the Earth’s lifespan of 4.54 billion years, humans only appeared between 200,000 and 300,000 years ago. This is just a very tiny fraction of time for one species to roam the Earth. Unfortunately, we are on our way to contributing to a historic mass extinction which includes the human race as well. Enough doomsday talk, for now, let’s have a look at the planetary boundaries and how it connects to what I previously mentioned.

Defining the planetary boundaries

The planetary boundaries are a significantly important concept when it comes to achieving far-reaching sustainability. An international group of 28 scientifically renowned scientists led by Johan Rockström identified the nine processes which are crucial to regulate the stability and resilience of our Earth systems. Published as Planetary Boundaries: Exploring the Safe Operating Space for Humanity (follow the link to the original article) in 2009, the planetary boundaries concept has been used as a guiding principle in which humans have the chance to develop and thrive for generations to come. In other words, the planetary boundaries define the safe operating space for humans without sacrificing themselves and the ability for other species to exist.

Source: Stockholm Resilience Centre

Stratospheric ozone depletion

The ozone layer is the second layer (stratosphere) of the Earth’s atmosphere, found around 15-30 km above its surface. Its purpose is to reduce harmful UV radiation. This is done by the ozone (O3) gas which absorbs the radiation from the sun and acts as a shield. Human influence through manufacturing potent chemicals caused ozone depletion by chemical reactions, which reduced the amount of ozone in the stratosphere.

The ozone hole poses a significant risk to humans, animals and the environment as more radiation passes the ozone layer. Cancer is the prevalent risk of higher radiation. Due to the harmful risks, the world came together in 1987 and the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer was adopted. This protocol demonstrates that global goals have the ability to tackle global challenges in an effective way. Now the ozone layer is on track to repair itself due to the global reduction of harmful chemicals.

Biodiversity integrity loss

Globally, we’ve experienced a massive decline and disappearance of biological diversity. Not only are we wiping out different kinds of animals and plants, but we also contribute to decreasing genetic variability, elimination of natural patterns and most dramatically, the loss of the Earth systems that can regenerate themselves.

There are many causes for biodiversity loss and humans are the main source. Biodiversity loss affects our food production, our health, our livelihood and our lives. Our lives depend on diversity and with deforestation, intensive monoculture and urbanisation we push the limits to a point of no return. Biodiversity loss is tightly connected to extinction and we will not be the exception if we don’t solve this crisis.

Chemical pollution and the release of novel entities

The overuse of chemicals which don’t occur naturally poses another threat to our health. Pesticides and herbicides, mining waste or chlorinated substances are a few things which contribute to chemical pollution. Too much is leaking into the natural environment causing healthy systems to collapse. Chemical pollution decreases soil health which makes it increasingly more difficult to produce food. Other chemicals which are not sufficiently mentioned in discussions about chemical pollution are the detergents we use daily in our households. Those are nowadays the primary source of chemical pollution found in water supplies.

The effects of chemical pollution are serious for the environment as well as for people. Recurring exposure can lead to various infections, asthma symptoms, irritations, right up to cancer and other disorders. The most effective way to reduce chemical pollution is to stop using unnatural chemicals in the first place. Household detergents can be swapped for natural ones.

Climate change

Preferably, I use the terms global warming or climate crisis which is an accelerated issue supported by human activities. Emissions have been going through the walls in the last couple of centuries, affecting the Earth system’s ability to regulate its climate. Heavy emitting industries like oil, mining, industrial agriculture and manufacturing are the main cause of this imbalance. To top it off, we were removing environmental systems which naturally contribute to a stable climate.

Deforestation, urbanisation and marine pollution contribute significantly to reaching the point of no return. It is very likely that we are already in deep shit and that we probably should start finding solutions to live with the climate crisis. We are at a point where we need to go full in instead of doing the bare minimum.

Ocean acidification

Labelled as “climate change’s evil twin”, ocean acidification refers to the change of pH value in the world’s oceans, rivers/streams and waterways through the uptake of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Interestingly, the label “evil twin” points the finger at climate change and the oceans, but it is we humans who led the world to this situation.

Ocean acidification is threatening our marine food supply, which is a considerable problem in terms of the almost 3 billion people depending on seafood as their primary protein source. Additionally, biodiversity is decreasing at an alarming rate which makes mass extinction of marine life almost irreversible. As with climate change, to stop ocean acidification we need to significantly reduce our global GHG emissions to decrease the harm to the marine ecosystems.

Freshwater consumption and the global hydrological cycle

Water use and stress are strongly interconnected due to human’s excessive and uncontrolled use of freshwater sources. Only 3% of the global water is freshwater and two-thirds of it is stored in frozen glaciers or inaccessible to us. Water scarcity poses a huge threat and we are still using it as if we have.

The production of one T-shirt consumes around 3000 litres of freshwater, this is equivalent to drinking two litres of water per day for 1500 days, that’s around four years. And this is only one T-shirt. Heavy industries rely on freshwater as much as the food industry and our daily needs. Water is a precious resource and we should treat it this way. We are in urgent need of water-smart solutions which are not easy to achieve, as we also pollute this life-giving resource.

Land system change

There isn’t much left of our natural world, only 3% of Earth’s land is ecologically intact. Around 1 million animal and plant species are threatened with extinction, more than ever in human history. Land use change refers to human activities which transformed the natural landscape, in particular, it refers to economic activities and urbanisation. Consequently, environmental degradation is intensifying, which leads to different chain reactions that support the climate crisis, ocean acidification, declining freshwater reserves, biodiversity loss, pollution etc.

Avoiding deforestation, restoring natural habitats, improving food production and stopping the conversion of natural land for human use are some of the many options to reduce the impacts of centuries of mismanaged land. Converting spaces altered by humans back to nature is another crucial step towards sustainable land management.

Nitrogen and phosphorus flow to the biosphere and oceans

For too long fertilisers have been used to enhance plant growth in agriculture. Too much nitrogen and phosphorus are used, which causes chain reactions like water and air pollution and soil quality decline. Monocultures are an enormously unsustainable way of producing food, but those systems are in need of fertilisers to keep yields high.

Uncontrolled application of chemical substances needs to come to a halt if we want to be able to produce food in the decades to come. We need to stop putting substances into the environment which don’t belong there.

Atmospheric aerosol loading

This boundary is closely connected to pollution and land-use change that releases dust and smoke by humans. Everything we burn goes into the atmosphere. It is once again the amount which is the problem. This contributes to the climate crisis, poor air quality and increased social and environmental health issues. Atmospheric aerosols have a direct impact on Earth’s system balance, as an increased amount leads to an imbalance. 

What is the problem if we cross the planetary boundaries?

One person would not be able to cause all these threats, they result from a collective action which has been going on for too long. As you can see in the graphic, human interventions on Earth are pushing not only the limits of one planetary boundary, but multiple ones. We continuously neglect the reality of the consequences when we make unsustainable decisions.

The problem is that we already took away a lot of the Earth systems’ abilities to regenerate themselves, and are continuing to do it at even greater scales. If we want to secure our survival, we have to keep the natural systems alive and intact to regenerate themselves. Those systems ensure that we have fresh air, clean water, healthy soils etc. Without them, our lives will become very miserable and some of us are already experiencing the consequences.

Air pollution in India killed 2.3 million people in one year, island states like the Maldives or the pacific islands will disappear within our lifetime, and the blazing heat waves going through Europe at the moment are only a tiny fraction of the consequences we will live through in the near future.

Due to crossing the planetary boundaries, we are increasing the risk of supporting large-scale rapid and irreversible environmental changes. We use too many resources without sense and understanding, we pollute too much, we destroy our natural world too much, and we take more than we should and give nothing back. Sounds like very bad character traits to me.

What do the planetary boundaries have to do with you?

However, I’m aware that the problem statement is not very motivating and you might question your role in reversing them. The goal of developing safe operating spaces on a global scale is an extremely crazy task. Funnily, we have all the resources we need to make it happen but we are not using those resources well.

Technological development enables us to connect with the whole world, there are few boundaries. Our job is to ambitiously use what we have and finally care for our only home. We need more smart heads to develop suitable solutions and we need double as many people to implement and test those solutions.

In the beginning, mitigation will be the focus of operations to fix the damage already done and to reduce the severity of the human madness. Very dramatic, but it’s true. We have the choice to finally respect what we have, or bring about the end of the human race.

Fun fact: dinosaurs ruled the Earth for around 174 million years. With our puny time of only 200,000 years, we are far from even reaching one million years.

Related:

Reimagine Sustainability: Create The Impact You Want To See In Our World

Sometimes I wonder if it matters whether the human species survives or not. We are not killing Earth, we are killing our livelihood based on short-term pleasure. The Earth will continue existing with or without us. Consequently, our only decision is if we want to continue existing and become a part of the Earth system again.