We propose [Earth system boundaries] for maintaining the resilience and stability of the Earth system (safe ESBs) and minimizing exposure to significant harm to humans from Earth system change (a necessary but not sufficient condition for justice). ... Seven of eight globally quantified safe and just ESBs ... are already exceeded.
Lead author Johan Rockström:
This means that unless a timely transformation occurs, it is most likely that irreversible tipping points and widespread impacts on human well-being will be unavoidable. Avoiding that scenario is crucial if we want to secure a safe and just future for current and future generations.
In the quest for sufficient mineral resources to make green dreams come true, affluent societies will become more dependent on an even more technologically complex, even more physically vulnerable energy supply as they exploit the resources of the global South. Those promoting this quest are all too aware that we are bursting through our planet’s ecological and resource limits.
The alternative to a voracious, high-energy, self-sabotaging economy would be one that provides for just enough material production to equitably ensure a decent, satisfying life for all.
In coming decades, it will be essential that communities across the nation and world find a way to sustain a decent life amid ecological breakdown, in a future they themselves didn’t create.
Update (September 14): An article published in Science Advances finds that six of nine planetary boundaries have been exceeded and two others are heading the wrong way.
Johan Rockström:
We are in very bad shape. We show in this analysis that the planet is losing resilience and the patient is sick.
