The climate is warming, fresh water is being consumed too much, land use is destructive and biodiversity is decreasing. The ozone layer in the atmosphere, which was a concern in previous years, has instead been made to heal.
The earth’s life-sustaining balance has been badly shaken due to human activity, according to an extensive study by an international research group.
Of the nine factors that regulate the stability of the Earth, six have exceeded the limit that scientists consider safe for humanity. A stable state prevailed from the end of the last ice age 10,000 years ago until the industrial revolution began at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. Since then, accelerating human activity has changed the balance.
Crossing the safe limit is believed to lead to irreversible changes in the ecosystems on which humans depend.
– This does not mean that the planet is heading towards an inevitable collapse, but that we are losing the resistance to cope with various stresses and shocks, says the environmental science professor who led the research Johan Rockström from Stockholm University from the Stockholm Resilience Centre among other things According to Dagens Nyheter.
Just one bright spot
On the basis of around 2,000 studies, the researchers prepared the most extensive overall picture to date, the so-called health check of the earth, by examining all nine factors affecting the viability of the earth.
A well-known threat to a healthy planet is climate change. Among other things, the diversity of nature is also dangerously threatened. In addition, land use has been unsustainable, fresh water resources are used too much and the eutrophication of waterways is affecting our planet badly, it is said Published on the Science Advances website in the study. Eutrophication is due to the fact that nutrients important for plants, such as phosphorus and nitrogen, are spread into water bodies, for example with waste water and from agriculture and forestry.
The amount of air pollution and ocean acidification are also moving in a dangerous direction, but they have not crossed the line yet. Ocean acidification is linked to climate change and is caused by the binding of carbon dioxide to water.
The only bright spot in the study is the state of the ozone layer in the atmosphere. The ozone layer thinned and the ozone hole grew dangerously a few decades ago, but now the situation has clearly improved.
The reduction of the ozone hole was achieved when in 1987 the so-called Montreal Convention on banning substances that destroy the ozone layer.
– The world intervened collectively, trusted science, and industry developed solutions. We were able to turn the tide away from a life-threatening disaster. Now we are [otsonikadon suhteen] again in a safe situation, Rockström stated to the news agency Reuters.
A total of 29 researchers from eight different countries have been conducting the research. A group of researchers from Aalto University participated from Finland. It led the research in terms of fresh water consumption.
“Combating climate change alone is not enough”
The researchers emphasize that simply stopping global warming is not enough, but the entire world needs a major reassessment.
Different threats can reinforce each other and thus lead to a sudden jump in change. Therefore, issues such as climate change, loss of biodiversity and pollution should not be treated separately, they state.
Professor of environmental science at Lund University Markku Rummukainen tells Dagens Nyheter that it is not scientifically precisely defined what the accepted risk limits are for different threat factors. However, he considers the basic thesis of recent research to be valuable, according to which global environmental and social problems are connected, and there are limits to how much the earth can last before it has effects on nature and us.