Six out of 9 planetary boundaries breached, Earth increasingly becoming uninhabitable for humans: Scientists

Earth is increasingly becominguninhabitablefor humans, a new study has warned saying that the blue planet is at risk of generating large-scale abrupt or irreversible environmental changes due to human activity.

According to a study published in Science Advances journal, six out of nine planetary boundaries have been breached due to human-caused pollution and destruction of the natural world.

The planetary boundaries are a set of framework designed by scientists within which humanity can continue to develop and thrive for generations to come.

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These nine planetary boundaries were first proposed by a group of 29 internationally renowned scientists in 2009.

The nine planetary boundaries are:

• Biosphere integrity
• Climate change
• Freshwater changes
• Ocean acidification
• Stratospheric ozone depletion
• Atmospheric aerosol loading
• Land system change
• The introduction of novel entities such as synthetic chemicals and nuclear waste.
• Biogeochemical flows such as the movement of nitrogen through global element cycles.

Of these, six boundaries have been transgressed.They arebiosphere integrity, climate change, freshwater changes, land system change, the introduction of novel entities such as synthetic chemicals and nuclear waste, biogeochemical flows such as the movement of nitrogen through global element cycles.

"We are in very bad shape," said study co-author Johan Rockstrom, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany.

"We show in this analysis that the planet is losing resilience and the patient is sick."

On Wednesday (Sept 13), the scientists of the study said that they had updated the list from 2015, and added a sixth factor to the unsafe category.

Rockstrom said that water went from "barely safe" to the "out-of-bounds" category because of worsening river run-off, better measurements and understanding of the problem.

These boundaries "determine the fate of the planet", he said, adding that nine factors have been "scientifically well established" by numerous outside studies.

"If Earth can manage these nine factors, Earth could be relatively safe. But it's not," he said.

He said that the failing resilience could make it impossible to reach the 1.5C climate goal and could bring the world closer to real tipping points.

The research, which was based on 2,000 studies, indicated that several planetary boundaries were passed long ago.

"This update finds that six of the nine boundaries are transgressed, suggesting that Earth is now well outside of the safe operating space for humanity,” the scientists said.

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