How Defining Planetary Boundaries Can Transform Our Approach to Growth

Will Steffen, Johan Rockstrom, Robert Costanza

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticle

    Abstract

    Our planet's ability to provide an accommodating environment for humanity is being challenged by our own activities. The environment—our life-support system—is changing rapidly from the stable Holocene state of the last 12,000 years, during which we developed agriculture, villages, cities, and contemporary civilizations, to an unknown future state of significantly different conditions. One way to address this challenge is to determine "safe boundaries" based on fundamental characteristics of our planet and to operate within them. By "boundary," we mean a specific point related to a global-scale environmental process beyond which humanity should not go. Identifying our planet's intrinsic, nonnegotiable limits is not easy, but here we specify nine areas that are most in need of well-defined planetary boundaries, and we explain the steps needed to begin defining and living within them.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)59-65
    JournalSolutions-for a sustainable and desirable future
    Volume2
    Issue number3
    Publication statusPublished - 2011

    Fingerprint

    Dive into the research topics of 'How Defining Planetary Boundaries Can Transform Our Approach to Growth'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

    Cite this