Earth Day, planetary boundaries, and the Green New Deal

As we celebrate Earth Day in 2019, we need to recognize that more than climate change threatens our environment and our very existence. We have passed or are approaching several Planetary Boundaries outside of which human society may not survive.

Image Credit: EcoIdeaMan/Twitter

Environmental scientists have developed the concept of Planetary Boundaries to identify Earth system processes that human activity is disrupting. They have tried to identify boundaries beyond which that disruption will trigger radical planetary environmental changes that endanger the survival of human society. 

Of the nine planetary boundaries these scientists have identified, they say that we have already passed four of them:

Read the story from Nation of Change by Howle Hawkins - “Earth Day, planetary boundaries, and the Green New Deal.”