![](images/Logos/ABC%20News%20Logo_NEW.jpg)
Earth is 'really quite sick now' and in danger zone in
nearly all ecological ways, study says
A new study says Earth has pushed past seven out of eight
scientifically established safety limits and into “the danger zone,”
not just for an overheating planet that’s losing its natural areas,
but for well-being of people living on it
May 31,
2023
By
SETH BORENSTEIN
![](images/images_06_06_2023/wirestory_2dded06915af4645253f5c29abff4794_16x9_992.jpg)
FILE - A woman bathes her daughter in the Yamuna
River, covered by a chemical foam caused by industrial and domestic
pollution as the skyline is enveloped in toxic smog, in New Delhi,
India, on Nov. 17, 2021. . A new study says Earth has pushed past
seven out of eight scientifically established safety limits and into
“the danger zone,” not just for an overheating planet that’s losing
its natural areas, but for well-being of people living on it. The
study, published Wednesday, May 31, 2023, for the first time it
includes measures of “justice,” which is mostly about preventing harm
for groups of people.
AP Photo/Manish Swarup
The Associated Press
Earth has pushed past seven out of eight
scientifically established safety limits and into “the danger zone,”
not just for an overheating planet that's losing its natural areas,
but for the well-being of people living on it, according to a new
study.
The study looks not just at guardrails for the planetary ecosystem but
for the first time it includes measures of “justice,” which is mostly
about preventing harm for countries, ethnicities and genders.
The study by the international scientist group Earth Commission
published in Wednesday’s journal Nature looks at climate, air
pollution, phosphorus and nitrogen contamination of water from
fertilizer overuse, groundwater supplies, fresh surface water, the
unbuilt natural environment and the overall natural and human-built
environment. Only air pollution wasn’t quite at the danger point
globally.
Air pollution is dangerous at local and regional levels, while climate
was beyond the harmful levels for humans in groups but not quite past
the safety guideline for the planet as a system, the study from the
Swedish group said.
The study found “hotspots” of problem areas throughout Eastern Europe,
South Asia, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, parts of Africa and much
of Brazil, Mexico, China and some of the U.S. West — much of it from
climate change. About two-thirds of Earth don’t meet the criteria for
freshwater safety, scientists said as an example.
“We are in a danger zone for most of the Earth system boundaries,”
said study co-author Kristie Ebi, a professor of climate and public
health at the University of Washington.
If planet Earth just got an annual checkup, similar to a person's
physical, “our doctor would say that the Earth is really quite sick
right now and it is sick in terms of many different areas or systems
and this sickness is also affecting the people living on Earth,” Earth
Commission co-chair Joyeeta Gupta, a professor of environment at the
University of Amsterdam, said at a press conference.
It’s not a terminal diagnosis. The planet can recover if it changes,
including its use of coal, oil and natural gas and the way it treats
the land and water, the scientists said.
But “we are moving in the wrong direction on basically all of these,”
said study lead author Johan Rockstrom, director of the Potsdam
Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany.
“This is a compelling and provocative paper – scientifically sound in
methodology and important for identifying the dimensions in which the
planet is nearing the edge of boundaries that would launch us into
irreversible states,” Indy Burke, dean of the Yale School of the
Environment said in an email. She wasn’t part of the study.
The team of about 40 scientists created quantifiable boundaries for
each environmental category, both for what’s safe for the planet and
for the point at which it becomes harmful for groups of people, which
the researchers termed a justice issue.
Rockstrom said he thinks of those points as setting up “a safety
fence’’ outside of which the risks become higher, but not necessarily
fatal.
Rockstrom and other scientists have attempted in the past this type of
holistic measuring of Earth’s various interlocking ecosystems. The big
difference in this attempt is that scientists also looked at local and
regional levels and they added the element of justice.
The justice part includes fairness between young and old generations,
different nations and even different species. Frequently, it applies
to conditions that harm people more than the planet.
An example of that is climate change.
The report uses the same boundary of 1.5 degree Celsius (2.7 degrees
Fahrenheit) of warming since pre-industrial times that international
leaders agreed upon in the 2015 Paris climate agreement. The world has
so far warmed about 1.1 degrees Celsius (2 degrees Fahrenheit), so it
hasn’t crossed that safety fence, Rockstrom and Gupta said, but that
doesn’t mean people aren’t being hurt.
“What we are trying to show through our paper is that even at 1 degree
Centigrade (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) there is a huge amount of damage
taking place,” Gupta said, pointing to tens of millions of people
exposed to extreme hot temperatures.
The planetary safety guardrail of 1.5 degrees hasn’t been breached,
but the “just” boundary where people are hurt of 1 degree has been.
“Sustainability and justice are inseparable,” said Stanford
environmental studies chief Chris Field, who wasn’t part of the
research. He said he would want even more stringent boundaries.
“Unsafe conditions do not need to cover a large fraction of Earth’s
area to be unacceptable, especially if the unsafe conditions are
concentrated in and near poor and vulnerable communities.”
Another outside expert, Dr. Lynn Goldman, an environment health
professor and dean of George Washington University’s public health
school, said the study was “kind of bold,” but she wasn’t optimistic
that it would result in much action.
Green Play Ammonia™, Yielder® NFuel Energy.
Spokane, Washington. 99212
www.exactrix.com
509 995 1879 cell, Pacific.
exactrix@exactrix.com
|