A SAFE OPERATING SPACE FOR HUMANITY

A SAFE OPERATING SPACE FOR HUMANITY

Johan Rockström et al

Grupo 1 : IN - Filtrados

Betina Campos Vence Tomas Robles Castaño Valentina Pinto Cardenas Valentina Garavito Arévalo Mery Iovanna Peña Fontecha Pablo Miguel Sanabria Valencia María Angélica Veloza Moncada

Creatividad y empoderamiento con impacto social

Index

01. Introduction

02. Planetary boundaries

03. Climate change

04. Rate of biodiversity loss

05. Nitrogen & Fosforous cycles

06. Delicate balance

HOLOCENE

Planet´s environment has been unusually stable for the past 10.000 years.

• Regular temperatures

• Freshwater availability

• Biogeochemical flows

INTRODUCTION

Illustration 2: Industrial Revolution

intro

Illustration 1: Holocene Period

ANTHROPOCENE

Since the industrial revolution, human actions have become the main driver of global environmental change.

• Rapidly growing reliance on fossil fuels

• Industrialized forms of agriculture

"Identifying and quantifying planetary boundaries that must not be transgressed could help prevent human activities from causing unnaceptable environmental change."

Quote

Johan Rockstrom and colleagues

PLANETARY BOUNDARIES

Illustration 3: Planetary Boundaries

PLANETARY BOUNDARIES

These boundaries define the safe operating space for humanity with respect to the Earth system and are associated with the planet´s biophysical subsystems or processes.

Stratospheric ozone depletion Concentration of ozone Proposed boundary: 276 Current state: 283 Pre - industrial value: 290

Global freshwater use Consumption of freshwater by humans Proposed boundary: 4.000 Current state: 2.600 Pre - industrial value: 415

Ocean acidification Global mean saturation state of aragonite in surface sea water Proposed boundary: 2.75 Current state: 2.90 Pre - industrial value: 3.44

Quemical pollution Concentration of persistant organic pollutants, plastics, endocrine disrupters, heavy metals and nuclear waste Not yet quantified

Change in land use % of global land cover converted to cropland Proposed boundary: 15 Current state: 11.7 Pre - industrial value: LOW

Atmospheric aerosol loading Overall particulate concentration in the atmosphere Not yet quantified

Illustration 4: Planetary boundaries

01

CLIMATE CHANGE

Planetary Boundaries

Planetary Boundaries

CLIMATE CHANGE

Atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration

350

387

280

Proposed boundary

Pre - industrial value

Current Status

Change in radiative forcing

1.5

Proposed boundary

Pre - industrial value

Current Status

Illustration 5: Climate change

RATE OF BIODIVERSITY LOSS

02

Planetary Boundaries

Planetary Boundaries

RATE OF BIODIVERSITY LOSS

Extinction rate (number of species per million species per year)

10

>100

0.1 - 1

Proposed boundary

Pre - industrial value

Current Status

Up to

of all mammal, bird and amphibian species will be threatened with extinction this century.

30%

*More research is required to pin down this boundary with greater certainty.

Illustration 6: Rate of biodiversity loss

NITROGEN & FOSFOROUS CYCLES

03

Planetary Boundaries

Planetary Boundaries

NITROGEN & PHOSPHORUS CYCLES

Amount of N2 removed from the atmosphere for human use

121

35

Proposed boundary

Pre - industrial value

Current Status

Quantity of P flowing into the oceans

8.5 - 9.5

-1

11

Proposed boundary

Pre - industrial value

Current Status

Illustration 7: Nitrogen and phosphorus cycles

DELICATE BALANCE

02

BRANCH

01

The work on understanding essential Earth processes including human actions.

BRANCH

3 Branches of scientific inquiry

The scale of human action in relation to the capacity of earth to sustain it.

03

BRANCH

Research into resilience.

"The evidence so far suggests that, as long as the thresholds are not crossed, humanity has the freedom to pursue long- term social and economic development."

Quote

Johan Rockstrom and colleagues

• First boundaries are being established and general awareness is being established.

• Even though the paper is well structured, there is still a lack of information and evidence on the proposed boundaries.

Argumento crìtico

GRACIAS

Referencias

Rockström, Johan, et al. "A safe operating space for humanity." Nature 461.7263 (2009): 472.