At the Tällberg Forum, leading scientists and global leaders presented the first results from a new research project to identify planetary boundaries and avoid devastating climate change. Never before have scientists and leaders tried in this way to understand the complex interdependence between the earth’s natural systems and human activities.
Twenty
of the world’s leading scientists gathered before and during the Tällberg Forum
to begin identifying the boundaries that will keep us safe from the adverse
effects of climate change. Keeping within these boundaries will act as a safety
barrier for sustainable human development.
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We rush towards boundaries that, if we cross them, will lead to irreversible
disasters. We’re talking about sea level increases of several meters, a
collapse of agricultural systems in dry regions, a total loss of coral reefs
and fishing resources, and the dehydration of the Amazonas. Global leaders have
to realize that we cannot negotiate with nature. We need to revise our own
societal systems, said Johan Rockström, head of Stockholm Environment Institute
and Stockholm Resilience Centre at the Stockholm University.
Earlier
this week, in an unusual move for scientists, some of the group signed an advertisement
published in leading international papers, such as the New York Times and
International Herald Tribune, highlighting one important boundary: 350 parts
per million (ppm) of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Additional boundaries
that the group presented today were freshwater consumption, stratospheric ozone
depletion and ocean acidification.
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Our work here at Tällberg Forum links to other efforts, specifically the Copenhagen process in
2009. At Tällberg, we will use these boundaries as input when we prototype a
model for an optimal Copenhagen
treaty, said Bo Ekman,
founder of Tällberg Forum and chairman of Tällberg Foundation.
Boundaries
In the first meeting of the group of world-leading
scientists, a list of about ten possible Planetary Boundaries was produced. These
address the issues:
• Climate change
• Stratospheric ozone depletion
• Ocean acidification
• Nutrient input to oceans (phosphorous)
• Aerosols in the atmosphere (influencing climate
change)
• Interfering with the global nitrogen cycle
• Terrestrial land use
• Freshwater consumption
The group is also considering whether it is
possible to define boundaries at the planetary level in the fields of
terrestrial biodiversity, chemicals dispersion, and management of marine
ecosystems.
The twenty researchers and experts that take part
in the project of defining planetary boundaries are:
• Tariq
Banuri, Stockholm Environment Institute, Boston
• Robert W. Corell, The H. John Heinz III Center
for Science, Economics and the Environment, US
• Robert Costanza, Gund Institute for Ecological
Economics, University
of Vermont
• Bo
Ekman, Tällberg
Foundation, Sweden
• Victoria J. Fabry, California
State University
San Marcos, US
• Carl Folke, Beijer Institute of Ecological
Economics and Stockholm Resilience Centre, Sweden
• James Hansen, NASA Goddard Institute of Space Science, US
• Eric Lambin, University of Louvain, Belgium
• Martin Lees, The Club of Rome, Germany
• Tim Lenton, University
of East Anglia, UK
• Diana Liverman, Environmental Change Institute, Oxford University, UK
• Catherine McMullen, UNEP Division of Early
Warning and Assessment, Nairobi
• Kevin Noone, International Geosphere-Biosphere
Programme (IGBP) Secretariat,
Sweden
• Johan Rockström, Stockholm Resilience Centre at Stockholms
University/Stockholm Environment Institute
• Marten Scheffer, Aquatic Ecology and Water
Quality Management Group, Wageningen
University
• Jasper Sky, Global Thermostat Project
• Will Steffen, Fenner
School of Environment and Society, Australian National University, Australia
• Uno Svedin, Swedish Research Council for
Environment, Agricultural Sciences and Spatial Planning (Formas)
• Sverker
Sörlin, Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden
• David Wasdell, Meridian Programme, UK
• Anders
Wijkman, Member of European Parliament