The limits of the Earth - the planetary boundary model

Hi everyone,

So today we're talking about a model that was introduced in 2009 and has offered a new perspective to thinking about environmental issues.

The planetary boundary model has 9 boundaries, each has a safe zone. Once the safe zone is exceeded, the stable conditions on our planet are considered at risk, and there can be severe and possibly irreversible changes. The nine boundaries are considered separate however, they greatly affect each other.

Novel Entities describes the introduction and accumulation of man-made novel chemical compounds. These include pesticides, nuclear waste and microplastics.

Stratospheric Ozone Depletion refers to the depletion of the ozone layer which was a major problem in the 90s.

Atmospheric Aerosol Loading is air particle pollution.

Ocean Acidification is self-explanatory.

The boundary Biochemical Flows is composed of two separate boundaries; nitrogen and phosphorus. Both of the elements are vital for plant growth. They are therefore removed from the atmosphere/soil and turned into fertilisers which normally just wash away in the rain and pollute nearby waterways.

Freshwater Use is also split into two separate boundaries. The first is green water, which describes all water absorbed in soils, crops, plants and forests. This is sometimes called invisible water. The second is blue water, which describes water in rivers, lakes and streams, often known as visible water.

The process of turning natural habitats such as rainforests and grasslands into agricultural land is known as Land-System Change.

The two boundaries that make up Biosphere Integrity are functional and genetic.

The last boundary is probably the best known; Climate Change. Here there are two boundaries, CO2 levels and radiative forcing.

Planetary boundary model 2022

So now that we've covered the different boundaries, let's look at how much at risk they are of being exceeded. Here comes the sad news, six of the nine boundaries have now been crossed. Here's a brief overview of when which boundary left its safe zone. You can see these same years as a infographic here.

When introduced in 2009, biosphere integrity (at this point only one goal), climate change (also only one goal) and the nitrogen part of biochemical flows were already exceeded. Novel entities and atmospheric aerosol loading were not yet accessed.

In 2015, biosphere integrity was split into two boundries and land-system change and the phosphorus part of biochemical flows also left the safe zone. Novel entities and atmospheric aerosol loading still weren't accessed.

This year, 2023, all 9 boundaries were assessed for the first time. Climate change has been split into its separate boundaries, ocean acidification is worryingly close to leaving the safe zone. Both boundaries of freshwater use and novel entities have left the safe zone.

The only boundary which has got better is stratospheric ozone depletion. If this model had existed in the 1990s then the ozone depletion would have been out of the safe area. But regulations and initiatives have lead this boundary to now be the furthest from leaving its safe zone than all the rest.

One of the best things about this model is that it shows that the environmental crisis is so much more than just climate change. It shows how in every aspects, there is work to do and with the example of ozone depletion also shows that we can make a difference. We hope you enjoyed this post.

Your Green World Blog Team💚

Sources:
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1259855
https://www.stockholmresilience.org/research/research-news/2023-09-13-all-planetary-boundaries-mapped-out-for-the-first-time-six-of-nine-crossed.html
https://planetaryinternational.com/2021/07/lets-discuss-the-9-planetary-boundaries/
https://www.stockholmresilience.org/research/planetary-boundaries.html

Image:
Designed by Azote for Stockholm Resilience Centre, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Comments

16.08.2020 Animal of the week: Elephant

Hello. On the 12th of August it was International Elephant Day, so we decided that this week's post should be about elephants. Elephants are the largest living land mammals. There are three types of elephant; the African bush elephant; the African forest elephant and the Asian elephant. African elephants have larger ears, whereas Asian elephants have smaller ears. Elephants use their trunks to breath, bring food and drink to their mouths and to grasp objects. Elephants' legs are like pillars. They carry the Elephant's massive weight. African bush elephants weigh 6000kg, Asian elephants weigh 4000kg and African forest elephants weigh 2700kg. Basically, they are very heavy.Elephants eat grasses, small plants, bushes, fruit, twigs, tree bark, and roots. Elephants can live up to 70 years old in the wild. They communicate by sight, touch and smell. Sadly, these wonderful mammals are in danger. African elephants are listed as vulne...

How does plastic affect the environment?

Hello, I wanted to clarify exactly how plastic affects the environment. I hope this will explain. When plastic breaks, it releases toxic gasses that poison animals. Also, if plastic is swallowed it could cut or damage the inside of the animal. Many animals such as turtles and dolphins mistake the small plastic fragments for food. Even if the plastic is too small to cut into the insides of the animal or cause choking, too many micro plastics inside an animal will eventually block the digestive tracts and they will starve to death. Recent research proves that plastic has entered the human body. This is because plankton eats microplastics and small fish eat plankton. Bigger fish eat smaller fish and we eat the bigger fish. So inside us is plastic. Plastic also blocks waterways and sewers. This leads to the perfect breading grounds for disease carrying animals such as mosquitos. When plastic is burned it releases those toxic gas...

10 animals on the edge of extinction you didn't know about no.3- The Monarch butterfly

The monarch butterfly is an animal you will probably have seen around in your life. It's not the kind of animal you will know the name of, much less the extinction status, but the monarch butterfly is rated "endangered" on the WWF website. It's affected by climate change and humans and its numbers have declined greatly. Fast Facts The Monarch Butterfly is a rather small animal, however pretty large for one of its species. Their wingspan ranges from about 90 to 100 mm, the male butterflies being slightly larger than the female. They are orange with a black patterning and white dots on the sides of their wings, the vibrant colours warn predators of their bad taste. Monarch butterflies are known for their migration habits. They are mainly found in northern America, but travel to the south (Mexico or California mainly) to hibernate. These tiny butterflies travel almost 3 thousand kilometres and can be found all over the planet by now...

Ecosia

We all need to do something to save our planet: it is no use just leaving it to Greta Thunberg! She is very inspirational, yes, but she can only do so much. She isn't superhuman! The climate crisis is up to us; up to you. We all have to get stuck in. Research, learn, discover and most importantly: never give up! The world's animals need us. The world's trees need us and a simple way to do this is to switch to Ecosia. Ecosia is a search engine but it plants trees while you search the web. Okay, it doesn't have as many websites as google so you may want to have google as a backup but it plants trees: this is your opportunity to make a simple change. Just google Ecosia and search to plant trees. Make a difference. Image: This image is owned by Binyamin Mellish on pexels.com .

Discussion || Should Everyone Switch To Electric Cars?

Hi Everyone! Thank you so much for joining me today, as I hop on the blog to discuss whether everyone switching to electric cars would really help the environment. In other words, should everyone switch to electric cars? This is the first part of a two-part series, discussing electric cars, so stay tuned for part two!! I would like to start this post by stating that I am by no means an expert. This is knowledge I have from my own experience, and from research I have done. If anything is incorrect please take it as it is and accept that this is a discussion and I am taking on board all opinions from reliable sources on this complex topic. Electric cars are a huge topic when it comes to sustainability and "saving our planet". There is no debating the fact that electric cars are better for the environment than diesel or petrol once they are on the road. But the production of them is often very polluting, with one study show...

How well do you know the Arctic and the Antarctic? - Quiz

Welcome back to Green World, As announced last week, we're starting our new monthly series: quizzes! This post contains the questions, you have to write down the answers and compare them with the solutions right at the bottom of this post. Questions: True or False? The Arctic is not actually a land mass, it's a frozen ocean. How many people live in the Arctic circle? a) 500 000 b) 4 million c) 10 million True or False? Narwals don't actually have unicorn-like horns. That's just a legend. What percentage of the world's freshwater is frozen within the Arctic's ice? a) 10% b) 15% c) 20% True or False? The Arctic covers parts of 15 different countries. Scientists exploring Antarctica have measured winds of up to... a) 100 km/h b) 150km/h c) 200km/h True or False? The driest (natural) place on Earth is in Antarctica...

10 Animals on the Edge of Extinction No. 10- The Javan Rhino

The Javan rhino is listed as the 1st animal on WWF’s list of the 10 world’s most endangered animals, and I for my part, had never heard of it! If you hadn’t either, we’re changing that now. A bit about the rhino’s lifestyle The Javan rhinos are now exclusively found on the island of Java in Indonesia, but were once found in vast regions of northeast india and Southeast Asia. They have a dark grey colour which looks almost black when wet, and their (often pink) skin folds look a bit like plated armor. Both males and females have lower incisors which resemble tusks that they use to fight. Males have one relatively short horn of about 25 cm (10 inches). Javan Rhinos live in tropical forests, marshy areas and in the thick bush. They are mainly browsers and eat over 100 plants species they find in the forest, weigh between 900 and 2300 kg (1984-5071 pounds) and are between 3 and 3.2 meters (10- 10.5 feet) long. How endangered are we talking? Javan rhinos are the most ...

Amazon Rainforest series - part 3: human involvement

Hi everyone, This is the last post in the amazon rainforest mini series. It's all about how humans have affected the amazon rainforest. Unfortunately, most human impact on the amazon is negative. The Amazon rainforest faces many threats, but the main one is fire. You may think that the fires in the amazon are wildfires or created by accident, but that is not true. All over the amazon, farmers are setting fire to the trees and foliage. For only one reason, to clear land for farming. But this is a disaster. Last month, the amazon rainforest reached its tipping point . Due to the fires, it is now releasing more CO2 than it is absorbing. To feed our growing population, we are killing countless species. Species, that in some cases, we haven't even discovered yet. If the amazon rainforest goes, climate change will become pretty much unstoppable. But it isn't only animals and plants that are suffering. Do you remember all those tribe...

Ozone layer

Hi everyone, What even is ozone? And the ozone layer? Where does the hole in the ozone layer come from and what does it mean? Is it dangerous? What can be done? Often the ozone-talk can be complicated and confusing, keeping an overview is hard and understanding all the problems always difficult. Let us break it down a bit for you: What is the ozone layer? We'll start with the basics: The ozone layer is part of the stratosphere, which is the second layer of the Earth's atmosphere, between 10 and 50 km above the Earth's surface and made up of protective gases. One of these protective gases is ozone. There is not much ozone in the atmosphere, only 0.3 molecule of ozone per 1 million molecules of air. This is because ozone is chemically unstable and only forms when ultra violet radiation (UV light) hits oxygen and breaks the bonds between the atoms. It fact it is so unstable that even when it has formed, it breaks down again relatively quickly. This leads to ozone turning back ...

Palm Oil

Hi everyone, Today we would like to share with you some information about palm oil. With all the focus on climate change and plastic pollution, not many people are acting against the use of palm oil. Workers First of all, the managers promise that the workers will have good money, but when they arrive, their passports are taken from them, therefore, meaning they are trapped. Soon they find out that they aren't paid as well as promised. They have to work long hours with no breaks, maternity leave or sick days. Some people have to spray pesticides with leaking cans and no safety gear, meaning they become ill but are still forced to work. Deforestation Many animals are losing their home because the trees are chopped down to make room for the palm trees. they are now facing extinction. Also, trees helped to slow down climate change, but without them, climate change speeds up. So this is a big problem. Help your planet! Image:...

Green World

Search This Blog