Earth's Health Report Indicates That Six of the Nine Boundaries Have Been Breached

Earth's Health

It is no secret that humans have been very selfish regarding Earth. To, fulfill their objectives humans have time and again exploited resources provided by Mother Earth. A recent analysis conducted by scientists at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) in Germany concluded that six of Earth's planetary health boundaries have been breached, while the seventh is on the verge of being broken, IFL Science reported. These findings imply that Earth's present state is something experts and authorities should look hard into, to keep the planet sustainable for future generations. 

Planetary Boundary Science

Planetary Boundary Science was brought to focus in 2009 by Johan Rockstrom, the director of the PIK, The Guardian reported. Rockstrom and his team identified nine planetary boundaries — climate change, biosphere, land system change, freshwater change, biogeochemical flows, ocean acidification, atmospheric aerosol loading, ozone layer depletion, and the presence of novel entities, such as synthetic chemicals, to the environment. Experts say each system needs to function optimally for the planet's stability, resilience, and livability. "We recognize that the planet’s health… is at such risk today that we in science must also now step up and step right out into the uncomfortable zone and say that we are now committing ourselves to produce every year a scientific measuring of the entire health assessment – a risk assessment – across all the planetary boundaries," Rockstrom said. "This is much more than science, this is science for change."

Planetary Health Check Report

According to the 2024 health check report, within the nine systems and processes – the planetary boundaries – which are essential for the maintenance of the planet’s life-support functions, six have been breached, one is in danger and the other two are relatively stable, The Guardian reported. Each of these systems has a threshold, which should not be breached for its healthy functioning, as per the scientists from PIK. Climate change, the introduction of novel entities, change in biosphere integrity, and modification of biogeochemical flows have been categorized to be in high-risk zones. Planetary boundaries have also been breached in land system change and freshwater change but the damage is less compared to the other four systems. Stratospheric ozone depletion has been deemed stable and a slight improvement has been noted in atmospheric aerosol loading, as per the report. The ninth boundary, ocean acidification is currently in the safe zone but is predicted to be breached in the next few years, IFL Science reported. 

Concern Regarding Ocean Acidification

Levke Caesar, a climate physicist at PIK and co-author of the report points out two reasons behind the deterioration in the system of ocean acidification, The Guardian reported. The factors he cited were the system's current aragonite saturation state and the problems that the marine beings were facing because of the overall reduction in water quality. "One is [that] the indicator for ocean acidification, which is the current aragonite saturation state, while still being in the safe operating space, is approaching the threshold of transgressing the safe boundary," Caesar explained. "The second is that there are actually several new studies that were published over the last years that indicate that even these current conditions may already be problematic for a variety of marine organisms, suggesting a need [to] re-evaluate which levels can actually be called safe."

Impact of the report

Researchers associated with PIK believe that oftentimes these 'planetary boundaries' are analyzed as solitary issues, even though when in the context of Earth, they are deeply interconnected, IFL Science reported. This report aids experts and authorities in addressing planetary health as a multi-dimensional matter. According to the report, all the damage to the planet ultimately comes down to human actions. The report will allow humans to look at the bigger picture and consider how their activities impact the interconnectedness between the different systems. "The Planetary Health Check is a major leap forward in our collective mission to understand and protect our planet. We have known for some time that we are weakening the planet’s resilience. This scientific update shows that irrespective of what scale we operate on, all actions need to consider impacts at the planetary scale," added Rockström.