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Scientists have issued a dire warning this week concerning the state of Earth’s life support systems, stating that humanity has pushed the planet “well outside the safe operating space.” While we’ve all been aware for a while that the planet is in a state of rapid decline, this is the first full “scientific health check” to confirm our worst fears when it comes to the environment.

A comprehensive assessment of nine key “planetary boundaries” reveals that six of them have been breached due to human-induced pollution and the destruction of natural ecosystems.

These planetary boundaries encompass vital global systems such as climate, water and biodiversity, and crossing these jeopardises the Earth’s capacity to maintain a healthy environment, threatening the stability of our planet.

This alarming “health check” assessment underscores how human activities have dramatically shifted these systems away from the stable conditions that prevailed from the end of the last ice age 10,000 years ago until the Industrial Revolution, a period known as the Holocene.

Among the nine boundaries tested, two are perilously close to being breached: air pollution and ocean acidification. The only boundary that remains unthreatened is atmospheric ozone, thanks to global efforts to eliminate harmful chemicals. I guess at least we can take the latter as a reluctant ‘win’.

The most concerning findings concern the four biological boundaries that impact the “living world”, which are now at or near the highest risk level.

It’s important to note that these planetary boundaries aren’t sudden points of no return but represent thresholds beyond which the risks of fundamental changes to Earth’s physical, biological and chemical support systems significantly increase. Although first introduced in 2009 and updated in 2015, scientists now warn that we have pushed these boundaries further than ever before.

Experts argue that this dwindling planetary resilience could make it nearly impossible to meet critical climate goals, such as restricting global warming to the 1.5°C target. Plus, humanity’s impacts on the Earth’s systems just keep growing, further exacerbating the situation.

An apt analogy is likening Earth to a patient with dangerously high blood pressure; while the diagnosis doesn’t guarantee a sudden catastrophe, it dramatically raises the likelihood of one. Mama Earth is feeling the stress.

The recent assessment, based on 2000 studies and published in Science Advances journal, reveals that several of these planetary boundaries were transgressed long ago. For instance, the boundary for biosphere integrity, involving the health of ecosystems, was breached in the late 19th century due to widespread habitat destruction.

Climate change has also long exceeded its safe boundary, with climate models indicating that this occurred in the late 1980s. In addition, freshwater systems surpassed their boundary during the early 20th century, as indicated by a new metric considering both lakes and rivers and soil.

The scientists behind the health check warn that phasing out fossil fuel burning and ending destructive farming practices is crucial if we want to improve the health of our beloved home.

While some argue that the planetary boundaries concept oversimplifies complex global systems, it’s a needed reminder of our impact on the Earth and the need to change the way we do things (and by ‘we’, I’m looking at you, massive fossil-fuel guzzling corporations).

While human life on planet Earth will certainly ‘make it’ ’til next Friday, and even a hundred Fridays thereafter, if the strain on Earth doesn’t change pace soon, there will be (more) dire consequences.

[source:theguardian]