Nine worst environmental threats mapped

The loss of biological diversity and changes to land use – these are two of the nine critical dangers listed on the newly updated environmental agenda. An international group consisting of 28 reputable researchers have identified these threats. In addition they have established the critical levels for seven of the nine threats that humans should maintain in order for our society to be able to continue to develop and blossom.

Sverker Sörlin, Professor of Environmental History at KTH and co-author of this article on environmental threats says that the impact of crossing the lines represented by these levels would mean extremely difficult living conditions for all the inhabitants of the earth.

“Imbalance in the ecosystems leads to diseases among animals and plants. If you are poor and live in the wrong part of the world then, as usual, you are affected even more seriously,” states Professor Sörlin.
He feels that this is important work as it could function as a supporting instrument for the establishment of guidelines for how the environment is to be managed.

“For example it will be easier for the governments of the world to set up limits to industrial emissions. Just look at how well it worked as concerns the limits for carbon dioxide emissions. Now there are another six limits to work with,” says Sverker.

However it is not only the politicians who benefit from the work that has been done, companies themselves will find it easier to set limits. Sverker Sörlin refers to the newly published article in the Guardian on the fact that the aero industry is to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 50 percent by 2050.
“Another, extremely important point and strength in the article is that it clarifies the climate issue and reaches right into its core,” asserts Professor Sörlin.

The work that underlies this article has been extensive and has been underway for two years. It is also based on research that reaches even farther back in time.

“The surveying of all the data that this study is based on is a multidisciplinary cooperation between natural science researchers, archaeologists and environmental historians,” says Sverker.
Put simply these researchers have drawn the first, preliminary map of the earth’s safety margins. Humanity does not want to wander outside these limits, in the opinion of Professor Jonathan Foley, Head of the Institute on the Environment at the University of Minnesota.

The full list of these threats – threats that are interlinked in one or several ways – is as follows:

• Emissions of greenhouse gases
• The thinning of the ozone layer
• The acidification of the oceans
• Land use changes
• Fresh water utilisation
• Loss of biological diversity
• The addition of nitrogen and phosphor to land and sea
• Aerosols in the atmosphere
• Emissions of environmental toxins

For more information, please contact Sverker Sörlin at sorlin@KTH.se or +46 70 545 25 26.

Read the article at Nature´s website

Peter Larsson