Planet on the verge of a “heart attack”: 6 of the 9 security levels have been exceeded

A blood pressure greater than 120/80 does not guarantee a heart attack, but it increases the risk of suffering one, hence the need to reduce it. Similar to the human body, the planet “urge” of care because, as a study certified today, 6 of the 9 limits that guarantee its safety have already been exceeded.

In 2009, the Stockholm Resilience Center identified the nine key processes that have guaranteed the stability of the Earth for more than 12,000 years, as well as limits that, if exceeded, in each of the processes, could cause a collapse.

The destabilizing processes for which these safety thresholds were set are climate change, the integrity of the biosphere, freshwater scarcity, land use change, chemical pollution, stratospheric ozone, ocean acidification, pollution by phosphorus and nitrates, and atmospheric aerosols.

In 2015, the first major scientific review of the state of the limits found that 4 of them were already in the red (climate change, chemical pollution, integrity of the biosphere and land use change).

Today, the magazine Science Advances announces the results of a scientific study, carried out by 29 scientists from 8 different countries, which analyzes the current state of the 9 processes, with an alarming conclusion: the planetary limits have been exceeded in 6 cases, and in a seventh (acidification) it is about to be overcome.

The studio offers us the photo “from a sick planet”although “curable” If appropriate measures are taken in time to lower the “blood pressure” to avoid the “heart attack”one of the authors of the research, the Spanish David Nogués-Bravo, professor of Ecology at the University of Copehnagen, explained to EFE.

One of the most highly exceeded limits is that of chemical pollutants, which begin by degrading biodiversity and end up affecting humans, with cases such as mercury, which today is in the food chain of both animals and people, Nogués said. -Bravo.

Climate change is another process that greatly exceeds safety limits, a parameter set by scientists at an accumulation of CO2 in the atmosphere below 350 parts per million (ppm), although the current figure is between 417 and 420. ppm.

“Getting closer to concentrations of 450 ppm would lead to serious problems, we would be talking about almost 1.9 degrees more global average temperature; and reaching 550 ppm would be entering very dangerous territory. Let us keep in mind that the usual accumulation was 280 ppm before the Industrial Revolution,” the ecologist has detailed.

The destruction of ecosystems (due to deforestation, degradation…) or the extinction of species have triggered the level of security in another process: the integrity of the biosphere, which is “the network that sustains life itself”.

“The fact that the integrity of the biosphere has exceeded the planetary security limit is a major economic or health threat; the loss of species and ecosystems means greater exposure to viruses, among others”Nogués-Bravo added.

The risk levels due to contamination by phosphates and nitrates from the most used fertilizers have also been exceeded by far, and their exceeding is closely related to another threshold in red: the one that corresponds to the overexploitation of fresh water (rivers, aquifers).

Along with them, the levels of change in land use lead the planet to a very critical situation: “We are at a point where to avoid risks in this field, we would have to guarantee the restoration and protection of among a 30% and a fifty% of the earth’s surface”pointed out the researcher from the University of Copenhagen.

Only two processes, ozone concentration in the stratosphere and aerosol pollution, remain at safe levels, thanks to the measures taken at the time to address them.

The impacts on the health of the planet are there, but there is time to avoid the “heart attack”, scientists have stressed, if “We are capable of working quickly, jointly and at all levels, informing citizens well of the threats we face and combating them from the perspective of social equity,” has added.

Another notable conclusion of the study is the need to focus on the interaction between planetary boundaries: “Addressing climate change and the health of the biosphere must go hand in hand, as they are the two pillars of stability”stressed Johan Rockstrom, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Change and original proponent of the planetary boundaries framework in 2009.

The research known today is a “guide to action”, to reduce growing and potentially catastrophic risks on a planetary scale, has argued Rockstrom, who has stressed that the objectives set in the major international cooperation frameworks on climate change (Paris, 2015) and biodiversity (Montreal-Kunming, 2022) “are insufficient ” to return the planet to a safe situation.

“We need to go much further to recover, protect and rebuild planetary resilience,” it is finished.

Source: EFE