A team of global scientists assessed that seven of nine so-called “planetary boundaries” — processes that regulate Earth’s stability, resilience and ability to sustain life — had now been crossed.
Climate change, biodiversity loss, deforestation, freshwater depletion, overuse of agricultural fertilisers, and the release of artificial chemicals and plastics into the environment were all already deep in the red.
In their new report, the scientists said all seven were “showing trends of increasing pressure — suggesting further deterioration and destabilisation of planetary health in the near future."
(Report can be found at https://www.planetaryhealthcheck.org/)
But what about economic growth rates and the next quarterly profit numbers for my widget company? Do you know how upset the shareholders will be if we don’t hit those!?
Priorities people!
My life fades. The vision dims. All that remains are memories. I remember a time of chaos. Ruined dreams, this wasted land. But most of all, I remember The Road Warrior. The man we called Max. To understand who he was, you have to go back to another time… when the world was powered by the black fuel and the desert sprouted great cities of pipe and steel.
I opened this article thinking it was gonna be something cool about space travel 🥲
Self-preservation is a powerful motivator, could get us into space faster if we don’t kill us all first.
It’s much too late for that.
Given the one company that has made the most headway with that is SpaceX, I’ll take my chances right here on earth.
Only if you want to live…
I guess you better come with me, then. Also, I need your boots, your clothes, and your motorcycle.
And don’t forget the most important item of all: sunglasses! 😎
All of us deserve this. All of us.
All the ones who are standing aside and we watch this unfold.
All of you praising capitalism. All of you praising Elon Fusk and the international cooperation of oligarchy.
You were little pussies to kill them. To kill mergers. To kill conglomerates. All of you.
We deserve our own demise.
Enjoy.
We deserve this! We listen to fascist dictators set to destroy our planet over scientists trying to make our world a better place. What did you think would happen!?
Apologies for being an american late to the party; but how can these boundaries be principled? Why are there only 9? I notice that the 2 we haven’t crossed are crises that globalization more-or-less addressed a long while ago (CFCs?). Why is the global report supported by exactly 2 organizations (both of which are new to me; though I see that they claim large staffs).
According to Wikipedia, the planetary boundaries -concept has been around since 2009, with some renaming and one variable change (“chemical pollution” to “novel entities”. The original Nature (feature) paper that I dug up doesn’t describe the methodology, but that it hasn’t faced major criticism so far would suggest it’s pretty valid for the kind of tool that it is.
Clearly we need more boundaries. Then only a few of them will be crossed. Checkmate, Mother Earth.
C’mon guys! I bet we can cross those last two in no time with minimal effort and some people will be rich…ooh goody!
