Many people focus on environmental problems as a single issue. Some claim that climate change is the single greatest problem that the world faces. It is indeed a great problem, but it is also a symptom of an even greater crisis. The roots of this crisis lie in human population and consumption exceeding the limits with which the Earth’s ecosystems can cope. I have collected together three videos by experts in this field discussing some of the multi-dimensional aspects of the ecological crisis.
Johan Rockstrom’s TED Talk on nine planetary boundaries is based on the paper “A safe operating space for humanity” published in Nature in 2009. The nine boundaries are (1) climate change, (2) biodiversity loss, (3a) biogeochemical nitrogen cycle, (3b) biogeochemical phosphorus cycle, (4) ocean acidification, (5) freshwater consumption, (6) land use, (7) ozone layer, (8) chemicals pollution and (9) atmospheric aerosols. According to Rockstrom we have already exceeded the boundaries in the first three systems.
Jared Diamond, in a video taken from a post on Cimate Progress, says there are 12 problems and we have to solve all of them. The first problems he mentions are renewable resources that could be managed sustainably. These are (1) forests, (2) fisheries, (3) topsoil and (4) biodiversity. There are non-renewable resources on which we are approaching the limit. These are (5) energy, (6) fresh water and (7) photosynthetic capacity. Then there are damaging things humans move around: (8) toxic chemicals, (9) greenhouse gases and (10) invasive species. Finally there is (11) population and (12) consumption rates.
In 300 Years of FOSSIL FUELS in 300 Seconds Richard Heinberg narrates the story of how industrialisation,driven by fossil fuel consumption, has pushed the Earth’s ecosystems to and beyond their limits. At the end of the video Heinberg states four things that need to be done: (1) learn to live without fossil fuels, (2) adapt to the end of economic growth, (3) support seven billion humans and stabilise the population at a sustainable level and (4) deal with our legacy of environmental destruction.
“In short we have to live within nature’s budget of renewable resources at rates of natural replenishment,” Heinberg says. “None of our global problems can be tackled in isolation and many cannot be fully solved. We have to prepare for ‘business as unusual’. Our best goal is resilience: the ability to absorb shocks and keep going.”
