What is the evidence for planetary tipping points?

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barry W. Brook ◽  
Erle C. Ellis ◽  
Jessie C. Buettel
Keyword(s):  
Regime Shift ◽  
Anthropogenic Impacts ◽  
Resource Extraction ◽  
State Transitions ◽  
Tipping Points ◽  
Theoretical Justification ◽  
Positive Feedbacks ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Operating Space ◽  
Safe Operating

This chapter critically evaluates the likelihood that planet Earth will cross one or more global environmental tipping points, resulting in a degraded state that would be difficult to reverse. Ecological tipping points occur when components of a system change rapidly due an initial forcing that is amplified by positive feedbacks, resulting in a regime shift. The chapter examines the evidence in support of biological and geophysical boundaries that clearly delimit a “safe operating space” for people and biodiversity. For individual ecosystems, abrupt state transitions have been documented. However, apart from the climate system, there is scant evidence (or theoretical justification) to support the view that global aggregates like biodiversity, chemical cycles, or resource extraction have planetary thresholds that define the boundaries of a global safe operating space. Acknowledging the absence of clear evidence for thresholds or boundaries at the global level does not diminish the seriousness of anthropogenic impacts. It does, however, imply that local-scale mitigation actions will be most effective.

Predictability of tipping points with rate-dependent effects

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johannes Lohmann ◽  
Peter Ditlevsen
Keyword(s):  
Early Warning ◽  
Control Parameter ◽  
Initial Conditions ◽  
Ocean Model ◽  
Rate Of Change ◽  
Global Ocean ◽  
Critical Threshold ◽  
Tipping Points ◽  
Operating Space ◽  
Safe Operating

<p>Due to non-linearities in the dynamics of crucial elements in the climate system, Earth’s safe operating space is limited. Beyond a certain level of a control parameter, such as the atmospheric Greenhouse gas concentration, qualitative regime shifts in one or more sub-systems may take place. Additionally, theoretical studies suggest that abrupt, irreversible change can happen already prior to the crossing of a critical threshold in a control parameter.</p><p>In these so-called rate-induced transitions, the effective parameter level to induce tipping depends on the rate of change, or more generally the precise trajectory of the changing control parameter. Here we show rate-induced tipping points of the overturning circulation in a global ocean model. Due to the chaotic dynamics of the system, whether there will be tipping or not depends both on the rate and initial conditions in a very sensitive, non-smooth way. This raises questions about whether the safe operating space is still well-defined, and whether an approach of its boundary can be predicted.</p><p>For tipping points associated with slow passages across a bifurcation, generic early-warning signals have been developed for these purposes. Due to the necessarily fast parameter changes involved in rate-induced tipping, early-warning is more challenging. In many cases the tipping involves a saddle escape, which results in a delay of the actual transition and can be exploited for early-warning. Here this is demonstrated in the context of low-dimensional models. While due to the sensitivity of the dynamics around the saddle one might not be able to predict with certainty whether and when the system will tip, the indicators presented here may allow issuing a warning as the system gets close to tipping.</p>

A digital contract for restoration of the Earth System mediated by a Planetary Boundary Exchange Unit

2021 ◽  
pp. 205301962098727
Author(s):  
Orfeu Bertolami ◽  
Frederico Francisco
Keyword(s):  
Earth System ◽  
New Governance ◽  
Validation Process ◽  
Operational Conditions ◽  
Blockchain Technology ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Optimal Functioning ◽  
Operating Space ◽  
Exchange Unit ◽  
Safe Operating

In this paper, we propose a new governance paradigm for managing the Earth System based on a digital contract inspired on blockchain technology. This proposal allows for a radical decentralisation of the procedures of controlling, maintaining and restoring ecosystems by a set of networks willing to engage in improving the operational conditions of local ecosystems so to contribute to an optimal functioning of the Earth System. These procedures are aimed to improve local Planetary Boundary parameters so that they approach the optimal Holocene reference values, the so-called Safe Operating Space, via a reciprocal validation process and an exchange unit that internalises the state of the Earth System.

scholarly journals Aboriginal Tourism as Sustainable Social-Environmental Enterprise (SSEE): A Tlingit Case Study from Southeast Alaska

2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Paphaphit Wanasuk ◽  
Thomas F Thornton
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Economic ◽  
Southeast Alaska ◽  
Operational Strategies ◽  
Cultural Sustainability ◽  
Operating Space ◽  
Social Environmental ◽  
Short Time ◽  
Safe Operating ◽  
Dominant Influence

The Tlingit Aboriginal tourism enterprise named Icy Strait Point in Hoonah, Southeast Alaska is used as a case study to develop the new concept of Sustainable Social-Environmental Enterprise (SSEE). SSEE is defined as an innovative enterprise that has dynamic operational strategies while still maintaining its corporate core values and integrating social, environmental, cultural, economic and political (SECEP) sustainabilities in its operations. The SSEE framework assesses enterprises according to five domains of sustainability: social, environmental, cultural, economic, and political. Applying this framework, we find that while social, economic, and cultural sustainability goals have been achieved in a relatively short time by the Aboriginal tourism enterprise in Hoonah, the political and environmental spheres of sustainability are constrained by the dominant influence of the multinational cruise ship industry over tourism development. Thus, for an emerging tourism enterprise to be sustainable, we suggest each of these livelihood dimensions needs to achieve "a safe operating space" that is adaptable over time and to changing social and environmental circumstances.

scholarly journals Planetary Health Ethics: Beyond First Principles

Challenges ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Foster ◽  
Jennifer Cole ◽  
Andrew Farlow ◽  
Ivica Petrikova
Keyword(s):  
Code Of Ethics ◽  
Global Environmental Change ◽  
Ethical Framework ◽  
Future Health ◽  
Transdisciplinary Approach ◽  
Planetary Health ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Health Community ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Operating Space

Planetary health is a transdisciplinary approach that aims to advance the understanding of the links between human-driven changes to the planet and their consequences, and to develop appropriate solutions to the challenges identified. This emerging movement has not yet agreed upon a code of ethics to underpin the rapidly expanding body of research being carried out in its name. However, a code of ethics might support the principles for planetary health set out in the Canmore Declaration of 2018. Phrases such as “Public Health 2.0”, “Human Health in an Era of Global Environmental Change”, or “A safe and just operating space for humanity” are often used in planetary health discussions, but are not always clearly defined and so far, the field lacks a strong guiding ethical framework. In this paper, we propose a starting point towards a code of ethics for planetary health that builds on the Canmore Declaration. We chose to propose 12 ethical principles in recognition of the need for a 12-Step Programme for the planet. The human race must identify and reject damaging behaviours. Evidence of the harm we are causing the planet is no longer enough and refraining from certain current practices is essential for Earth’s future health. We must motivate advocacy and calls for action. We believe a shared ethical code can act as a tool to enable and encourage that process. This paper is presented to the planetary health community as a starting point, not as a finished agenda. We welcome comments, critiques, additions and the opportunity to rework our approach accordingly.

Global Environmental Justice and the Environmentalism of the Poor

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joan Martinez-Alier
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Justice ◽  
Food Sovereignty ◽  
Resource Extraction ◽  
Tree Plantations ◽  
Ecological Distribution ◽  
Environmental Racism ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
The World ◽  
Water Justice

There are an increasing number of ecological distribution conflicts around the world ultimately caused from the increase in the metabolism of the economy in terms of flows of energy and materials. There are resource extraction conflicts, transport conflicts, and also waste disposal conflicts. Therefore, there are many local complaints. Since the 1980s and 1990s there has been a globalizing environmental justice movement that in its strategy meetings and practices has developed a set of concepts and slogans to describe and intervene in such conflicts. They include “environmental racism,” “popular epidemiology,” “the environmentalism of the poor and the indigenous,” “biopiracy,” “tree plantations are not forests,” “the ecological debt,” “climate justice,” “food sovereignty,” “water justice,” and so on . . . These notions have been born from socio-environmental activism but sometimes they have been taken up also by academic political ecologists and used in their analyses.

scholarly journals Planetary Boundaries: Exploring the Safe Operating Space for Humanity

2009 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Johan Rockström ◽  
Will Steffen ◽  
Kevin Noone ◽  
Åsa Persson ◽  
F. Stuart III Chapin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Planetary Boundaries ◽  
Operating Space ◽  
Safe Operating

scholarly journals Food for thought: pretty good multispecies yield

2016 ◽  
Vol 74 (2) ◽  
pp. 475-486 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Rindorf ◽  
Catherine Mary Dichmont ◽  
Phillip S. Levin ◽  
Pamela Mace ◽  
Sean Pascoe ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Fisheries Management ◽  
Single Species ◽  
Maximum Sustainable Yield ◽  
Social Benefits ◽  
Sustainable Yield ◽  
Average Yield ◽  
Operational Management ◽  
Operating Space ◽  
Management Advice ◽  
Safe Operating

Abstract MSY principles for marine fisheries management reflect a focus on obtaining continued high catches to provide food and livelihoods for humanity, while not compromising ecosystems. However, maintaining healthy stocks to provide the maximum sustainable yield on a single-species basis does not ensure that broader ecosystem, economic, and social objectives are addressed. We investigate how the principles of a “pretty good yield” range of fishing mortalities assumed to provide >95% of the average yield for a single stock can be expanded to a pretty good multispecies yield (PGMY) space and further to pretty good multidimensional yield to accommodate situations where the yield from a stock affects the ecosystem, economic and social benefits, or sustainability. We demonstrate in a European example that PGMY is a practical concept. As PGMY provides a safe operating space for management that adheres to the principles of MSY, it allows the consideration of other aspects to be included in operational management advice in both data-rich and data-limited situations. PGMY furthermore provides a way to integrate advice across stocks, avoiding clearly infeasible management combinations, and thereby hopefully increasing confidence in scientific advice.

scholarly journals Social Policy Without Growth: Moving Towards Sustainable Welfare States

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Max Koch
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
Production And Consumption ◽  
Operating Space ◽  
Historical Role ◽  
Environmental Limits ◽  
Safe Operating

Growth-dependent welfare states contribute to climate emergency. The ecological economics, degrowth, and sustainable welfare literatures demonstrate that to re-embed Western production and consumption patterns in environmental limits, an encompassing social-ecological transformation would need to be initiated very soon. This article focuses on the potential roles of the welfare state and social policy in this transformation, applying the concepts of ‘sustainable welfare’ and ‘safe-operating space’. Based on two Swedish studies, it also provides an empirical analysis of the popularity of selected eco-social policies designed to steer the economy and society towards this space: maximum and basic incomes, taxes on wealth and meat, as well as working time reductions. In analogy to the historical role of the state in reconstituting the welfare-work nexus in the post-WWII era and its present engagement in the context of the Covid-19 crisis, it is argued that a more interventionist state is required to grapple with climate emergency.

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