Week 2: The Big Picture - Post 2

The Big Picture

               There has never been such a critical time for global climate than now; humanity faces no greater challenge than stabilizing the planet. In order to stabilize the planet there must be a global transition of human development within the safe operating space of a resilient and stable planet. That safe operating space is defined by planetary boundaries. Planetary boundaries are critical biophysical boundaries that humans need to stay within to avoid unacceptable change with serious potentially disastrous consequences for societies. The four boundaries are: climate change, rate of biodiversity loss, nutrient loading (A.K.A pollution), and ocean acidification. This great challenge has been caused by human action, and can only be solved by human action. There are so many people using so much of the resources, and changing so profoundly the living ecosystems on Earth that human's are disrupting grand cycles of biology, chemistry, and geology. Almost all of the planet's ecosystem bear the marks of the human presence. Human's have affected the Earth to the point that they have created an entire epoch devoted to them. The Anthropocene is defined a geological epoch where humans are the main driver of earth system processes, global environmental change, at the planetary scale. The International Stratigraphic Commission, part of the International Union of Geological Sciences has confirmed the Anthropocene based on geological evidence. The Anthropocene is important because of how fast it has manifested. In the last fifty years society has seen what scientists call The Great Acceleration. Society moved from being a relatively small world on a large planet to a situation where today society has now become a large world on a small planet. Human's are able to impact the Earth to this degree due to environmental change globalization. Meaning, in real time, if someone drives to work emitting carbon dioxide in one part of the world it has, in real time, effects on the daily life of other individuals in other parts of the world. Human's have arrived at this new level of rising environmental risks due to the planetary squeeze. This originates from four different large driving forces: population/ affluence, climate change, ecosystem crisis, and the risk of tipping points. The United Nations Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, the first global health control of the world's ecosystems, show that over the past fifty years there has been a decrease of 60 percent of the ecosystem functions and services that not only support human well being, but help to buffer climate change as well. There is enormous evidence supporting the fact that the Great Acceleration is happening now.
              It is time to find a solution. There are several key challenges that society must face in order to find a solution.  However, there is hope for the future. This is the first generation to realize that human's have become a threat to our their existence. There is no longer room for denial and doubt. Human's are also incredibly adaptable and innovative. Through scientific findings and global cooperation there is an opportunity to transition to a world that reconnects our society and well-being to the biosphere, and generate human prosperity within safe planetary boundaries.