Dataset Information

Earth beyond six of nine planetary boundaries.

ABSTRACT: This planetary boundaries framework update finds that six of the nine boundaries are transgressed, suggesting that Earth is now well outside of the safe operating space for humanity. Ocean acidification is close to being breached, while aerosol loading regionally exceeds the boundary. Stratospheric ozone levels have slightly recovered. The transgression level has increased for all boundaries earlier identified as overstepped. As primary production drives Earth system biosphere functions, human appropriation of net primary production is proposed as a control variable for functional biosphere integrity. This boundary is also transgressed. Earth system modeling of different levels of the transgression of the climate and land system change boundaries illustrates that these anthropogenic impacts on Earth system must be considered in a systemic context.

SUBMITTER: Richardson K

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10499318 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Earth beyond six of nine planetary boundaries.

Richardson Katherine K Steffen Will W Lucht Wolfgang W Bendtsen Jørgen J Cornell Sarah E SE Donges Jonathan F JF Drüke Markus M Fetzer Ingo I Bala Govindasamy G von Bloh Werner W Feulner Georg G Fiedler Stephanie S Gerten Dieter D Gleeson Tom T Hofmann Matthias M Huiskamp Willem W Kummu Matti M Mohan Chinchu C Nogués-Bravo David D Petri Stefan S Porkka Miina M Rahmstorf Stefan S Schaphoff Sibyll S Thonicke Kirsten K Tobian Arne A Virkki Vili V Wang-Erlandsson Lan L Weber Lisa L Rockström Johan J

Science advances 20230913 37

This planetary boundaries framework update finds that six of the nine boundaries are transgressed, suggesting that Earth is now well outside of the safe operating space for humanity. Ocean acidification is close to being breached, while aerosol loading regionally exceeds the boundary. Stratospheric ozone levels have slightly recovered. The transgression level has increased for all boundaries earlier identified as overstepped. As primary production drives Earth system biosphere functions, human a ...[more]

PMID: 37703365

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Project description:The planetary boundaries (PBs) represent a well-known concept, which helps identify whether production and consumption systems are environmentally sustainable in absolute terms, namely compared to the Earth's ecological limits and carrying capacity. In this study, the impacts of production and consumption of the European Union in 2010 were assessed by means of life cycle assessment (LCA)-based indicators and compared with the PBs. Five different perspectives were adopted for assessing the impacts: a production perspective (EU Domestic Footprint) and four distinct consumption perspectives, resulting from alternative modelling approaches including both top-down (input-output LCA) and bottom-up (process-based LCA). Life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) results were assessed against LCIA-based PBs, which adapted the PBs framework to the LCIA indicators and metrics of the Environmental Footprint method (EF). Global environmental impacts transgressed several LCIA-based PBs. When assessing the overall environmental impacts of EU consumption compared to the global LCIA-based PBs, impacts of EU consumption related to climate change, particulate matter, land use and mineral resources were close or already transgressed the global boundaries. The EU, with less than 10% of the world population, was close to transgress the global ecological limits. Moreover, when downscaling the global PBs and comparing the impacts per capita for an average EU citizen and a global one, the LCIA-PBs were significantly transgressed in many impact categories. The results are affected by uncertainty mainly due to: (a) the intrinsic uncertainties of the different LCA modelling approaches and indicators; (b) the uncertainties in estimating LCIA-based PBs, due to the difficulties in identifying limits for the Earth's processes and referring them to LCIA metrics. The results may anyway be used to define benchmarks and policy targets to ensure that consumption and production in Europe remains within safe ecological boundaries, as well as to understand the magnitude of the effort needed to reduce the impacts.

Dataset Information

Earth beyond six of nine planetary boundaries.

Publications

Earth beyond six of nine planetary boundaries.

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