Planet beyond safe limits

2023/09/22 Etxebeste Aduriz, Egoitz - Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Ingurumena

An exhaustive study by an international group of scientists concludes that “planet Earth is far from a safe place for humanity.” In fact, the results of this study have shown that six of the nine borders that should not be exceeded for the planet to be a stable system are already overtaken and that the seventh one is about to be overtaken.

The Stockholm Resilience Centre defined nine limits in 2009 that cannot be exceeded if the stability of the earth system is to be maintained. Four had already been overcome: climate change, biosphere integrity, land use change and phosphorus and nitrogen cycles. Last year, a study concluded that the limit of environmental pollutants was also exceeded.

Now, 29 scientists from eight countries, based on over 2,000 researches, have analyzed the situation of the nine borders. The results have been published in the journal Science Advances. These results show that, in addition to the five exceeded, one sixth has already been exceeded, that of freshwater. In addition, they warn that the seventh, ocean acidification, is about to be overcome. And also the accumulation of atmospheric aerosols, which is globally within safe limits, in many places is well above that limit. Thus, it would be limiting the depletion of stratospheric ozone, the only one in good condition, which is recovering since the ban on chlorofluorocarbons.