The international community has tried to find ways to reduce the probability of exceeding the planetary boundaries. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs 2000) were formulated from the desire by most countries to improve human life in a sustainable manner. The least developed countries (LDCs) were the main focus with the hope that the MDGs would lead to better integration with the developed world economy. Countries and organizations were encouraged, initially high buy-in, to help LDCs move forward with the MDGs. Fifteen years later, we know that, while some countries have made substantial progress towards poverty alleviation, gender equality, etc., such goals still remain out of reach for many others (Clemens et al. 2007; United Nations 2014). There are several reasons for this limited success, including the failure of most developed countries to honor their development assistance promises, political greed or unrest, lack of adequate accounting and monitoring of initiatives, population growth absorbing any progress made, etc. Current life styles, technological advancements, economic drivers of over-consumption, and rapid globalization have all contributed to exacerbating the inadequacy of the system to respond to basic human needs. Compounding these challenges are the continued and escalating impacts associated with climate change and environmental degradation (Mearns and Norton 2010). These wicked problems challenge the capacity of all nations, rich and poor, in achieving any significant progress towards sustainability that encompasses ecological, social, and cultural systems.
bankrupting nature denying our planetary boundaries pdf free
The principles on which SDGs should acknowledge an ecosystem governance approach and where the ecosystems and services they provide are managed, restored, and governed to support the SDGs should be implemented in a manner that promotes sustainable development and human wellbeing. All such policies should be based on an understanding of the limits of ecosystems (and the planetary boundaries). Future actions should include the following:
Planetary boundaries is a concept highlighting human-caused perturbations of Earth systems making them relevant in a way not accommodated by the environmental boundaries separating the three ages within the Holocene epoch.[2][3] Crossing a planetary boundary comes at the risk of abrupt environmental change. The framework is based on scientific evidence that human actions, especially those of industrialized societies since the Industrial Revolution, have become the main driver of global environmental change. According to the framework, "transgressing one or more planetary boundaries may be deleterious or even catastrophic due to the risk of crossing thresholds that will trigger non-linear, abrupt environmental change within continental-scale to planetary-scale systems."[2]
The planetary boundaries framework lays the groundwork for a shifting approach to governance and management, away from the essentially sectoral analyses of limits to growth aimed at minimizing negative externalities, toward the estimation of the safe space for human development. Planetary boundaries demarcate, as it were, the "planetary playing field" for humanity if major human-induced environmental change on a global scale is to be avoided.[1]
The quantification of individual planetary boundaries is based on the observed dynamics of the interacting Earth system processes included in the framework. The control variables were chosen because together they provide an effective way to track the human-caused shift away from Holocene conditions.
For several of the processes in the planetary boundaries framework, it is difficult to locate individual points that mark the threshold shift away from Holocene-like conditions. This is because the Earth system is complex and the scientific evidence base is still partial and fragmented. Instead, the planetary boundaries framework identifies many Earth system thresholds at multiple scales that will be influenced by increases in the control variables.[5] Examples include shifts in monsoon behavior linked to the aerosol loading and freshwater use planetary boundaries.
The planetary boundaries framework proposes a range of values for its control variables. This range is supposed to span the threshold between a 'safe operating space' where Holocene-like dynamics can be maintained and a highly uncertain, poorly predictable world where Earth system changes likely increase risks to societies. The boundary is defined as the lower end of that range. If the boundaries are persistently crossed, the world goes further into a danger zone.[5]
It is difficult to restore a 'safe operating space' for humanity that is described by the planetary boundary concept. Even if past biophysical changes could be mitigated, the predominant paradigms of social and economic development appear largely indifferent to the looming possibilities of large scale environmental disasters triggered by human actions.[7][13] Legal boundaries can help keep human activities in check, but are only as effective as the political will to make and enforce them.[14]
Understanding the Earth system is fundamentally about understanding interactions among environmental change processes. The planetary boundaries are defined with reference to dynamic conditions of the Earth system, but scientific discussions about how different planetary boundaries relate to each other are often philosophically and analytically muddled. Clearer definitions of the basic concepts and terms might help give clarity.
The hydrologist David Molden stated in 2009 that planetary boundaries are a welcome new approach in the "limits to growth" debate but said "a global limit on water consumption is necessary, but the suggested planetary boundary of 4,000 cubic kilometres per year is too generous."[35]
Worldwide each year, aerosol particles result in about 800,000 premature deaths from air pollution.[citation needed] Aerosol loading is sufficiently important to be included among the planetary boundaries, but it is not yet clear whether an appropriate safe threshold measure can be identified.[9]
A Bayesian emulator for persistent organic pollutants has been developed which can potentially be used to quantify the boundaries for chemical pollution.[41] To date, critical exposure levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) above which mass mortality events of marine mammals are likely to occur, have been proposed as a chemical pollution planetary boundary.[42]
In summary, the planetary boundary concept is a very important one, and its proposal should now be followed by discussions of the connections between the various boundaries and of their association with other concepts such as the 'limits to growth'. Importantly, this novel concept highlights the risk of reaching thresholds or tipping points for non-linear or abrupt changes in Earth-system processes. As such, it can help society to reach the agreements required for dealing effectively with existing global environmental threats, such as climate change.
Broadly described proposed solution-approaches based on a general a framework of ecological limits include (transferable) personal carbon allowances and "legislated" national greenhouse gas emissions limits.[84] Consumers would have freedom in their (informed) choice within (the collective) boundaries.[85]
In 2011, at their second meeting, the High-level Panel on Global Sustainability of the United Nations had incorporated the concept of planetary boundaries into their framework, stating that their goal was: "To eradicate poverty and reduce inequality, make growth inclusive, and production and consumption more sustainable while combating climate change and respecting the range of other planetary boundaries."[90]
Elsewhere in their proceedings, panel members have expressed reservations about the political effectiveness of using the concept of "planetary boundaries": "Planetary boundaries are still an evolving concept that should be used with caution [...] The planetary boundaries question can be divisive as it can be perceived as a tool of the "North" to tell the "South" not to follow the resource intensive and environmentally destructive development pathway that rich countries took themselves... This language is unacceptable to most of the developing countries as they fear that an emphasis on boundaries would place unacceptable brakes on poor countries."[91]
However, the concept is routinely used in the proceedings of the United Nations,[92] and in the UN Daily News. For example, the UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner states that the challenge of agriculture is to "feed a growing global population without pushing humanity's footprint beyond planetary boundaries."[93] The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Yearbook 2010 also repeated Rockström's message, conceptually linking it with ecosystem management and environmental governance indicators.[94]
In their 2012 report entitled "Resilient People, Resilient Planet: A future worth choosing", The High-level Panel on Global Sustainability called for bold global efforts, "including launching a major global scientific initiative, to strengthen the interface between science and policy. We must define, through science, what scientists refer to as "planetary boundaries", "environmental thresholds" and "tipping points"."[95] 2ff7e9595c
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