Caroline Blythe

Dr. Schmalbeck

Honors Energy and Sustainability

27 February 2017

Planetary Boundaries

1. The Holocene is the geological time period before the Anthropocene. It consists mainly of

the thousands of years with an extremely stable and predictable climate, which allowed for

the rise of humans and human civilization. This stability also allowed for an increase and

subsequent accumulation of ecosystem capital.

2. As implied by the name, the quadruple squeeze consists of four major stressors that affect the

overall health of the Earth. They are population growth, ecosystem decline, policies

regarding climate, and surprises (when certain facets of the ecosystem that humans once

thought to be entirely certain turn out to be unpredictable).

3. The Anthropocene is the current geologic period, which began in the 1950s and is

characterized by its anthropogenic influence on earth and earth systems. All main factors

concerning ecosystem and human well being have shown similar trends over the past 200

years -- ten years after World War II, they skyrocket. Fertilizer use rises rapidly,

temperatures rise rapidly, deforestation rises rapidly, and so goes ocean acidity,

CO2/methane concentrations, and overfishing, among many factors. These statistics show

that human meddling is the cause of these changes.

4. There are multiple distinct formulas for system stability within an environment. For example,

a temperate forest is more or less stable in the current climate conditions. This can be
 represented by the first diagram, when the red ball is sitting snugly in the shallower

indentation. As climate changes and the ecosystem alters as a result, it has the possibility to

enter a new state of stability that includes different biotic and abiotic factors. This new state

of stability is represented by the larger indentation in the first diagram. However, this new

state is not always desirable when human interests are taken into account. Once the first

stable ecosystem begins to change into the second, it reaches what is called a tipping point --

a point of no return for ecosystem changes -- so that the ecosystem cannot return to its

original state. This can be shown by the second diagram. The red ball is sitting close to the

point on the graph where it would fall from the first state to the second state. If the threshold

between the two systems is breached, the ball has reached its tipping point and is unable to

revert to its original position. The resilience of each system, or its buffer to change, is

represented by the depth of the indentations on the graphs. Deeper indentations mean that

there must be more drastic changes or more severe consequences in order to the ball when

compared to the shallower indentations.

5. Sustainable development is the furthering of human society within the thresholds and safe

operating space of the nine planetary boundaries. If these are exceeded at any point,

development becomes unsustainable. Redundancy in social and environmental systems is

essential because the shift of mindset in society is necessary to implement the environmental

policies and changes that are required to further the progression of the Anthropocene and

stressing of planetary boundaries.

6. The planetary boundaries framework is the identification of the major thresholds Earths

ecosystems must not cross in order to maintain life as we know it in the Holocene. There are
nine planetary boundaries: climate change, ozone depletion, ocean acidification,

biogeochemical loading (for nitrogen and phosphorus, in particular), land system change, rate

of biodiversity loss, global freshwater use, atmospheric aerosol loading (air pollution), and

chemical pollution.