As numbers increased in human settlements, societies realized that management of local environmental resources is a prerequisite for continued societal development. Later, it was recognized that environmental management at the regional level is also necessary for societal wellbeing. With the human population at 7+ billion, and on a trajectory towards 9-10 billion, humanity is gradually now recognizing a need to manage environmental resources at the global level. Recognition of the human role in the creation of the ozone hole which, ultimately led to the adoption of the Montreal Protocol in 1987, was probably the first active attempt at global environmental management. However, more widespread appreciation of the need for environmental management at the global level has come with attempts (e.g .UNFCCC COP process) to manage human caused global climate change. In the cases of both the ozone hole and climate change, remedial action came in response to observations that alarming changes in Earth System (ES) processes were already taking place. Can Earth System science (where the Earth and its functioning are examined as a single (eco) system) provide a framework for global environmental management and proactively identify human changes of system properties that humanity should seek to avoid?
Results/Conclusions
The Planetary Boundary (PB) Framework (Rockström et al, 2009; Steffen et al 2015) seeks to do this by identify scientifically-based levels of human perturbation ES beyond which ES functioning may be significantly altered. The PB framework does not dictate how societies should develop but, rather, attempts to identify a “safe operating space (SOS)” within which they can develop. Nine essential processes for ES function that all are significantly impacted by human activities are identified. For 7 of these, a level (“boundary”) of human perturbation is proposed above which a significant risk of the activity leading to a change in ES state is perceived to be present. In 4 cases (climate change, biosphere integrity, land use and release of reactive nitrogen and phosphorus), the PB framework indicates that humanity has exceeded the proposed PB. Exceedance of a PB does not, however, imply imminent disaster. In the 1990s, the ozone boundary was exceeded but active management brought impact of on the ozone layer back into the SOS. By identifying an SOS within the ES that PB framework (or something similar) can, thus, potentially support good governance in the Anthropocene.