scholarly journals The Boundaries of the Planetary Boundary Framework: A Critical Appraisal of Approaches to Define a “Safe Operating Space” for Humanity

2020 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 497-521 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank Biermann ◽  
Rakhyun E. Kim
Keyword(s):  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
Policy Recommendations ◽  
Earth System ◽  
Planetary Boundaries ◽  
Earth System Science ◽  
System Science ◽  
Operating Space ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Safe Operating ◽  
Academic Debate

In 2009, a group of 29 scholars argued that we can identify a set of “planetary boundaries” that humanity must not cross at the cost of its own peril. This planetary boundaries framework has been influential in generating academic debate and in shaping research projects and policy recommendations worldwide. Yet, it has also come under heavy scrutiny and been criticized. What is today's overall significance and impact of the notion of planetary boundaries for earth system science and earth system governance? We review here the development of the concept and address several lines of criticism, from earth system science, development studies, and science and technology studies. We also examine some applications of the framework, discuss broader governance implications, and reflect on actual policy relevance. In concluding, we explore the most recent incarnation of the planetary boundaries framework in its avatar as earth system targets supported by an Earth Commission.

scholarly journals The case for a semiotic method in Earth system science: Semantic networks of environmental research

2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (3/4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alin Olteanu ◽  
Florian Rabitz ◽  
Jurgita Jurkevičienė ◽  
Agnė Budžytė
Keyword(s):  
Analytical Method ◽  
Semantic Networks ◽  
Environmental Research ◽  
Research Articles ◽  
Earth System ◽  
Semiotic Analysis ◽  
Planetary Boundaries ◽  
Earth System Science ◽  
System Science ◽  
New Horizons

This paper sets a framework for using semiotics as an analytical method for Earth system science. It illustrates the use of such a method by analysing a dataset consisting of 32,383 abstracts of research articles pertaining to Earth system science, modelled as semantic networks. The analysis allows us to explain the epistemological advantages of this method as originating in the systems thinking common in both Earth system science and semiotics. The purpose of this methodological proposal is that of bringing the recent and critical planetary boundaries framework to the attention of ecosemiotics and biosemiotic criticism, and vice versa. Ecosemiotics is a branch of the biosemiotic modelling theory and is thus grounded in Charles Peirce’s schematic semiotics, but also developed in inspiration of Juri Lotman’s systemic semiotics. Both of these foundations of ecosemiotics are compatible with the rationale of Earth system science, given the schematism of Peirce’s semiotics and Lotman’s notion of meaning as an affordance of the biosphere. Far from exhausting the hermeneutic possibilities evoked by the discussed dataset, we argue that such semiotic analysis, made possible by the digital capacity of modelling large amounts of data, reveals new horizons for semiotic analysis, particularly regarding humans’ modelling of the environment.

scholarly journals Chlorophyll a fluorescence illuminates a path connecting plant molecular biology to Earth-system science

Nature Plants ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Albert Porcar-Castell ◽  
Zbyněk Malenovský ◽  
Troy Magney ◽  
Shari Van Wittenberghe ◽  
Beatriz Fernández-Marín ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Molecular Biology ◽  
Chlorophyll A ◽  
Chlorophyll A Fluorescence ◽  
Plant Molecular Biology ◽  
Earth System ◽  
Earth System Science ◽  
System Science

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.

Earth system science and remote sensing

1985 ◽  
Vol 73 (6) ◽  
pp. 1118-1127 ◽  
Author(s):  
F.P. Bretherton
Keyword(s):  
Remote Sensing ◽  
Earth System ◽  
Earth System Science ◽  
System Science
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