The latest update reveals that six of these boundaries have been transgressed, including climate change and loss of biodiversity. Crossing these boundaries increases the risk of irreversible environmental changes.
evidence of widespread changes in soil moisture relative to mid-Holocene and pre-industrial conditions and green-water driven destabilization of ecological, atmospheric, and biogeochemical processes.
In January 2022, 14 scientists concluded in the scientific journal Environmental Science and Technology that humanity has exceeded a planetary boundary related to environmental pollutants and other “novel entities” including plastics.
In April 2022, a reassessment of the planetary boundary for freshwater indicated that it has now been transgressed. This conclusion is due to the inclusion of “green water” – the water available to plants - into the boundary assessment for the first time.
Crossing boundaries increases the risk of generating large-scale abrupt or irreversible environmental changes. Drastic changes will not necessarily happen overnight, but together the boundaries mark a critical threshold for increasing risks to people and the ecosystems we are part of.
