Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumEarth has exceeded four of the nine limits for hospitable life, scientist claims
Humanity has raced past four of the boundaries keeping it hospitable to life, and we're inching close to the remaining five, an Earth resilience strategist has found.
In a paper published in Science in January 2015, Johan Rockström argues that we've already screwed up with regards to climate change, extinction of species, addition of phosphorus and nitrogen to the world's ecosystems and deforestation.
We are well within the boundaries for ocean acidification and freshwater use meanwhile, but cutting it fine with regards to emission of poisonous aerosols and stratospheric ozone depletion.
"The planet has been our best friend by buffering our actions and showing its resilience," Rockström said. "But for the first time ever, we might shift the planet from friend to foe."
This table by Ted shows where we're at according to his scale:
Rockström came up with the boundaries in 2007, and since then the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has risen to around 400 parts per million (the 'safe' boundary being 350 parts per million), risking high temperatures and sea levels, droughts and floods and other catastrophic climate problems.
The research echoes a recent debate over whether the Earth has moved from the Holocene epoch to a new one scientists are calling the Anthropocene, named after the substantial effect mankind has had on the Earth's crust.
It's not all doom and gloom though.
"Ours is a positive, not a doomsday, message," Rockströ
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/earth-has-exceeded-four-of-the-nine-limits-for-hospitable-life-10111582.html
3catwoman3
(24,003 posts)...link. The colored boxes spell things out in a very sobering and succint way.
valerief
(53,235 posts)JayhawkSD
(3,163 posts)...both iterations of the chart are entirely too small to read. It would have been nice had the Independent provided a link to a larger, readable, version.
Ichingcarpenter
(36,988 posts)chose either find image in google
there you find two of the same images click on
and enlarge using your google browser
or open image in another tab
enlarge as necessary
JayhawkSD
(3,163 posts)GliderGuider
(21,088 posts)"The hinges on the majority of the Titanic's portholes work perfectly!"
NickB79
(19,246 posts)CO2 levels already over 400 ppm, but ocean acidification can be managed if we stay inside 350 ppm CO2
Ichingcarpenter
(36,988 posts)Gregorian
(23,867 posts)Air conditioning: it's the future! Now you'll never have to go outside, since you can't.