Europe’s politicians have moral responsibility to tackle air pollution, says WHO environment director
GuardianJUL 2023
The release of the first Planetary Health Check Report represents a significant step forward in our understanding and preservation of Earth's stability and resilience. Staying within the safe operating zone of the nine planetary boundaries is critical to establishing a stable and sustainable world. However,Surpassing surpassing a boundary heightens the risk of irreversibly altering Earth's life support systems and crossing critical points, leading to irreversible change. This is a call to action to mobilize political support to help restore already breached boundaries.
The notion of planetary boundaries is flawed and may mislead global environmental management initiatives. Six of the nine proposed boundaries don't actually have clear global biophysical limits. These— are land use change, nitrogen levels, species loss, freshwater use, chemical pollution, and aerosol loading. In other words, there are no apparent global tipping points for these boundaries that would cause natural systems to behave differently than they have historically.
There is a 50% chance that the the Climate Clock will hit zero by June 2029, according to the Metaculus prediction community.