The framework, originally proposed by Johan Rockström and colleagues in 2009, that identifies a set of Earth-system processes whose stability defines a safe operating space for humanity. The 2015 update by Steffen et al. and the 2023 update by Richardson et al. (a 29-author team) elaborate the framework and quantify its transgressions.
The 2023 paper (Science Advances 9, eadh2458) finds that six of the nine boundaries are now transgressed: climate change, biosphere integrity, land-system change, freshwater change, biogeochemical (nitrogen and phosphorus) flows, and novel entities. The remaining three (ocean acidification, stratospheric ozone depletion, atmospheric aerosol loading) are within their safe range at the global level. Humans now appropriate roughly 30 percent of the net primary production available before the Industrial Revolution.
The framework is one of the two ecological premises (with EROI collapse) that make Regenerative Economics necessary rather than optional, and one of the two most important inputs to reading the industrial S-curve as entering deceleration.
Related terms
Sources
- Richardson et al. (2023). Earth beyond six of nine planetary boundaries. Science Advances 9, eadh2458
Provenance
Borrowed from Rockström et al. (2009), Steffen et al. (2015), and Richardson et al. (2023). See Katherine Richardson for biographical context on the 2023 update lead.