Scientists ran a health check on the Earth — and the results are worrying
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A team of top scientists says that it has assessed the planet’s health against eight key thresholds needed to protect life on Earth and that human activities have led to seven of the eight of the boundaries already being breached.
“The window is rapidly shutting; we’re very close to irreversible tipping points,” Johan Rockström, a director at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and the lead author of the study published this week, said in a telephone interview. Rockström has described the report as the first time that quantifiable boundaries have been presented in this way “to assess the state of our planetary health,” measuring not only the stability of Earth’s ecosystems, but also assessing human well-being and equity.
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