nitrogen pollution) key global thresholds, increasing the likelihood of unprece -
dented ecological turbulence. Potentially catastrophic thresholds are in prospect,
which will dramatically compromise development both globally and locally (Folke
et al., 2011). The concept underpins an imperative for urgent green trans formation
to keep humanity within a ‘safe operating space’.
Planetary boundaries concepts and their associated meanings of green have,
like climate change limits, been constructed by particular actor-networks. Central
have been global environmental change scientists, from climate and biodiversity
science to oceanography and geochemistry. During interactions in the early 2000s
around the major global environmental change science programmes – notably the
Inter national Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP) – the concept was first
mooted as a way of integrating across programmes. The International Human
Dimensions Programme (IHDP) drew in some social science perspectives, notably
from geography. The widely cited Nature paper (Rockström et al., 2009) drew
from these scientific communities, led by Johan Rockström who rapidly became
the high-profile ambassador for the concept on the global stage. Through the
influence of his colleagues at the Stockholm Resilience Centre and in the wider
Resilience Alliance, the planetary boundaries discourse has also drawn strongly
on resilience thinking in its emphasis on thresholds, tipping points and whole-system
transformation.
For many scientists, planetary boundaries ideas are ongoing work-in-progress.
As argued in response to scientific critiques (e.g. Nordhaus et al., 2012), they
emphasize that boundaries are provisional, variable in character (e.g. some are ‘fast’,
suggesting tipping points, while some, such as land degradation, accrete slowly)
and that much further work is required to understand scale effects, boundary
interactions and other matters (Rockström, 2012; Galaz et al., 2012). Yet while
the science is still developing, planetary boundaries has rapidly come to operate as
a political and policy discourse embraced by many international and national actors
and institutions. The High-Level Panel on Global Sustainability at the Rio+20
conference in 2012 drew on it to justify not just a renewed urgency to sustainable
development, but a new paradigm in which environmental boundaries, at planetary
scale, provide the framework for social and economic development. It is supported
by major networks and initiatives playing key roles in the post-Rio, post-2015
process, including the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN, 2014,
http://unsdsn.org/official) and the Planetary Boundaries Initiative (http://planetary
boundariesinitiative.org/). The concept of planetary boundaries lends itself to
evocative popular symbols and representations, from the inflatable ball earth in Johan
Rockström’s TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) talk deflating as
boundary after boundary is exceeded, to the website image of a precipitous
waterfall with an African man, as an icon of humanity, standing just far enough
away, within the boundary, to avoid tipping over the edge. Like two degrees,
planetary boundaries is operating as a boundary object, uniting diverse actors and
interests around a particular meaning of green.
What is green? 31
dented ecological turbulence. Potentially catastrophic thresholds are in prospect,
which will dramatically compromise development both globally and locally (Folke
et al., 2011). The concept underpins an imperative for urgent green trans formation
to keep humanity within a ‘safe operating space’.
Planetary boundaries concepts and their associated meanings of green have,
like climate change limits, been constructed by particular actor-networks. Central
have been global environmental change scientists, from climate and biodiversity
science to oceanography and geochemistry. During interactions in the early 2000s
around the major global environmental change science programmes – notably the
Inter national Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP) – the concept was first
mooted as a way of integrating across programmes. The International Human
Dimensions Programme (IHDP) drew in some social science perspectives, notably
from geography. The widely cited Nature paper (Rockström et al., 2009) drew
from these scientific communities, led by Johan Rockström who rapidly became
the high-profile ambassador for the concept on the global stage. Through the
influence of his colleagues at the Stockholm Resilience Centre and in the wider
Resilience Alliance, the planetary boundaries discourse has also drawn strongly
on resilience thinking in its emphasis on thresholds, tipping points and whole-system
transformation.
For many scientists, planetary boundaries ideas are ongoing work-in-progress.
As argued in response to scientific critiques (e.g. Nordhaus et al., 2012), they
emphasize that boundaries are provisional, variable in character (e.g. some are ‘fast’,
suggesting tipping points, while some, such as land degradation, accrete slowly)
and that much further work is required to understand scale effects, boundary
interactions and other matters (Rockström, 2012; Galaz et al., 2012). Yet while
the science is still developing, planetary boundaries has rapidly come to operate as
a political and policy discourse embraced by many international and national actors
and institutions. The High-Level Panel on Global Sustainability at the Rio+20
conference in 2012 drew on it to justify not just a renewed urgency to sustainable
development, but a new paradigm in which environmental boundaries, at planetary
scale, provide the framework for social and economic development. It is supported
by major networks and initiatives playing key roles in the post-Rio, post-2015
process, including the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN, 2014,
http://unsdsn.org/official) and the Planetary Boundaries Initiative (http://planetary
boundariesinitiative.org/). The concept of planetary boundaries lends itself to
evocative popular symbols and representations, from the inflatable ball earth in Johan
Rockström’s TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) talk deflating as
boundary after boundary is exceeded, to the website image of a precipitous
waterfall with an African man, as an icon of humanity, standing just far enough
away, within the boundary, to avoid tipping over the edge. Like two degrees,
planetary boundaries is operating as a boundary object, uniting diverse actors and
interests around a particular meaning of green.
What is green? 31