Entering Our Own Epoch

Planetary Boundaries Framework Pt. 3 - Notes Week 8 - Planetary Boundaries Framework Pt. 3 Notes Lecture 1 - Biodiversity Loss Professor Johan Rockstrom -Think of it, without the living species everything from vegetation, trees to animals and small insects, pollinators, we would have no biomass, there would be no carbon sequestration, there would be no rainfall because a large portion of our fluxes of water originate from the canopy, from vegetation transpiring and evaporating water back to the atmosphere. It regulates the flows of fresh water, regulates the flows of carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus. The living biosphere is a fundamental component in regulating the stability of the entire Earth system. -And this relates to two components. One is the genetic diversity; the treasure of genetic code, which forms the adaptive capacity of the entire Earth system. But it's also the diversity of functions that we know today that in order to develop, for example, food for a...

Planetary Boundaries Framework - My Thoughts            This week was a nice review of my learning from last year. I got a refresher on climate change and ocean acidification. However, it also added new information. I learned about specific, quantitative tipping points and control variables. I also had to look up the current concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. I was shocked when I realized it had risen by 2 ppm since only a few months ago. We really are emitting carbon dioxide at exponential rates. This week was a bit easier then previous weeks. It was all focused science and less theory. I think that I like learning from a more scientific base then a theoretical one. But, that isn't to say I am not completely enjoying this course, because I definitely am.            For this week I want to know exactly the boundary for stratospheric ozone depletion. The lecture noted the control variable, which is the ozo...

                                                Planetary Boundaries Framework Pt. 2:           In total there are nine planetary boundaries, but so far humanity has only pushed three into a danger zone. Climate change, ocean acidification and stratospheric ozone depletion are all within their thresholds, meaning they are outside their safe operating spaces for a stable planet. Now climate change is a term used very commonly in the media to warn of human actions against ecosystems. Since the industrial revolution humans have emitted exponential amounts of greenhouse gases including carbon dioxide and methane. Those gases create a greenhouse effect which traps heat within the atmosphere. This effect creates an imbalance of heat. Essentially, more heat is entering the Earth's atmosphere then is leaving. Over the last one-hundred and fifty yea...

Planetary Boundaries Framework Pt. 1 - My Notes           This week all of the learning became clear. The previous weeks had seemed like a smattering of information about the Earth and it's systems, but I really was not sure how it all connected to the course topic of sustainability. However, now everything makes sense. Each topic in the previous week was a part of setting up the foundation with which understanding planetary boundaries lies. Now that I understand this concept, and am totally fascinated by it by the way, the learning of sustainability is straightforward. We establish the boundaries for the climate systems, so we know exactly how many trees we can cut down or how much carbon dioxide we can emit before the Earth is pushed outside the Holocene like state we're in right now. I loved this week, and I cannot wait to learn more about each of the Earth systems that make up the nine boundaries.            My questions ...

Planetary Boundaries Framework Pt. 1           Humanity has entered the Anthropocene. Humans are at the drivers seat of the changing climate. The question remains: how does humanity keep Earth in a Holocene like state so development may continue? The answer resides in planetary boundaries. The exponential pressures humans put on the Earth has the ability to cause catastrophic and irreversible tipping points within the Earth system. Understanding the thought process behind each planetary boundary helps to understand what they are. First scientists define which Earth system processes take part in regulating the Earth's ability to remain in a Holocene like state. An example of this is the climate system, which regulates global climate. Then, for each of the Earth systems scientists try to identify a control variable. These control variables put a quantitative boundary beyond which, if feedback shifts, thresholds, and tipping points are reached the Earth will e...

Planetary Boundaries Framework Pt. 2 Lecture 1 – Climate Change Professor Johan Rockstrom In this lecture we provide scientific evidence why climate change is a planetary boundary, and the basis for defining the boundary for climate change Building up evidence: -Sea level rise - Following a pathway that is leading us to three or four degrees warming this century And here science is advancing in a very profound way. We're understanding the climate system much, much more in detail, and particularly how the climate system interacts with the other planetary boundary processes such as land, water, oceans, and biodiversity. And the reason why this is occurring is that we're understanding more and more about resilience, about the risks that we have surprise and thresholds in the Earth system. And this to me is the most fundamental piece of evidence showing that a planetary boundary approach on climate is absolutely necessary because for one, at alrea...

Planetary Boundaries Framework Pt. 1 - Notes Lecture 1- Introducing the Planetary Boundaries Framework Professor Johan Rockstrom +The first module in this cluster on Planetary Boundaries will be introducing the three large processes, the three large planetary boundaries with global scale tipping points: climate change, ocean acidification, and ozone depletion. +In this lecture we'll be exploring the origins of the planetary boundary framework. The first one is the insight that we've entered the Anthropocene; the exponential pressures on the Earth system that we now have become a geological force of change at the planetary scale, which collides with the insight that we can no longer exclude catastrophic, irreversible tipping points in the Earth system. Could we as humanity push the entire Earth system outside of its current stability domain? This graph showing that the planet can actually reside in multiple stable states separated by a threshold. So th...

Social Ecological Systems Pt. 2 - My Thoughts This weeks learning was one of my favorites so far. The class I am taking is very theoretical, but this week I got to learn about more real world examples of climate science. I love that this course takes my climate science knowledge and expands it to a new and broader understanding of human interactions and the environment. I learned more about sea ice extend melting and carbon sinks. I also saw a lot of really great images I can use to create understanding in my presentation. I think the information from this course will make for a very comprehensive and interesting presentation, as it is focused more on the human basis of climate science. Still not enjoying writing post two in third person, but I am dealing.  My questions this week are limited due to Rockstrom's heavy use of science as evidence. But, I am still interested in knowing more about the Eemian warm interglacial period. Scientists used to predict that the Greenland I...

Social Ecological Systems Pt. 2            Moving forward humanity must prepare itself for changes that are non linear and unpredictable. Entering the Anthropocene, society and ecosystems are connected on a much deeper level then ever before. This interconnectedness translates into what is called teleconnections. Telleconnections are when one part of the world cascades itself in other parts of the world. For example, when a rainforest is cut down, changing rainfall patterns in Latin America, this can translate and propel itself to change rainfall conditions and temperatures in inner China. Over the last thousand years of human development society has build an entire economy on the basis that changes in the environment are predicted. However, society now exists in a situation where surprise is the core element of change. These surprises exist because of inconvenient feedbacks. These are big, surprising events that occur based on global drivers tran...