There are no planetary boundaries
There’s only the biosphere’s regenerative capacity
This world is indeed a living being endowed with a soul and intelligence … a single visible living entity containing all other living entities, which by their nature are all related. – Plato
The planet’s life-sustaining biosphere is in crisis. The Stockholm Resilience Centre has mapped the biosphere’s crisis as the sum of nine planet-scale ecological crises created by humanity’s “overshoot” of “planetary boundaries” …
The “planetary boundaries” are extraordinarily useful for comprehending the scale and interconnectedness of the planet’s ecological crises.
The “planetary boundaries” do not work, however, as “goals” or “targets” for reversing the planet’s ecological crises because – from the biosphere’s point of view – there are no “planetary boundaries.”
The biosphere is not thinking, “Oh, look, human-created carbon pollution is globally warming me beyond my human-defined planetary boundary for climate change. I need human policies and human management to keep my average surface temperature within my human-defined boundary for climate change so that human beings are OK and can keep on doing what they want to do.”
The biosphere is not thinking, “Human-created deforestation is overshooting my human-defined planetary boundary for deforestation. I need human policies and human management to limit the deforestation within my human-defined planetary boundary so that human beings are OK and can keep on doing what they want to do.”
Instead of “planetary boundaries,” from the biosphere’s point of view there’s only the biosphere’s regenerative capacity[1] (in bright green) operating on an extremely simple principle of meeting the physical needs of all living beings, including human beings …
Instead of “planetary boundaries,” the biosphere is constantly and consistently thinking and deciding and using the whole of its creativity, intelligence and regenerative capacity[2] for meeting the physical needs of all living beings, including the physical needs of every human being.
When one understands that, from the biosphere’s point of view, there are no planetary boundaries …
… one understands that, from the biosphere’s point of view there’s only the human-created damage to the biosphere’s regenerative capacity as a whole.
In other words, human beings are damaging the biosphere exponentially faster than the biosphere can regenerate itself, and this exponential damage to the biosphere’s regenerative capacity is showing up as the whole of the nine ecological crises identified by the Stockholm Resilience Centre.
When one understands that, from the biosphere’s point of view …
there are no planetary boundaries, and
there’s only human-created damage to the biosphere’s regenerative capacity as a whole …
… one understands that it is not human beings’ job to “manage” the ecological crises within some human-defined planetary boundaries for those crises.
Instead, it is our job – in the words of Paul Hawken[3] – to “take 100% responsibility” for the human-created damage that we are collectively inflicting on the biosphere as a whole.
First, it’s our job to understand that human decision-making for meeting human physical needs (in turquoise) – called “the Human Enterprise”[4] -- is creating exponentially growing things-we-extract flows and pollution flows (in orange) that are damaging the biosphere (in deep green) faster than the biosphere can regenerate itself …
… and this exponentially-growing damage to the whole of the biosphere’s regenerative capacity is creating the whole of the nine ecological crises identified by the Stockholm Resilience Centre …
Second, it’s our job to take 100% responsibility for scaling back (in yellow) the things-we-extract flows and pollution flows (in orange) as a whole …
… which allows the biosphere as a whole (in deep green) to regenerate itself (in yellow) as a whole …
… and allows the creativity, intelligence and regenerative capacity1 of the biosphere as a whole (in bright green) to reverse (in yellow) the ecological crises as a whole …
… and allows the biosphere’s regenerative capacity (in bright green) to meet the physical needs of all its living beings, including its human beings, as a whole …
Understanding that there are no planetary boundaries allows one – in the words of Paul Hawken – to “take 100% responsibility” for scaling back the things-we-extract flows & pollution flows and allowing the biosphere’s regenerative capacity to reverse the ecological crises as a whole.
What do you think?
Can reversing the ecological crises get any simpler than this?
If the ideas in this article excite you, please consider subscribing to my Substack channel, Solving the Eco-crises at …
Thank you for reading Solving the Eco-crises.
Peace and Aloha!
Erik
P.S. I cross-posted this article on Medium for greater reach.
[1] In the words of Fritjof Capra:
To summarize the new system conception of life – life organizes itself in networks, and these living networks are inherently regenerative, creative and intelligent.
[2] In the words of Plato:
This world is indeed a living being endowed with a soul and intelligence … a single visible living entity containing all other living entities, which by their nature are all related.
[3] In the words of Paul Hawken:
When you think about [global warming] as something that’s happening for us, then you take 100% responsibility, you stop blaming people, you honor the science … you solve the problem by looking at the possibilities that are inherent in the problem.
[4] In the words of Paul Ehrlich:
To rescue the human enterprise in the long run requires strong action in the short run directed toward saving biodiversity and bringing the human enterprise within sustainable limits.
Your use of the diagrams makes the holistic concept incredibly clear and actionable. Thank you for sharing the article with us ☺️