A safe operating space for humanity

Journal Publication ResearchOnline@JCU

Rockstrom, Johan;Steffen, Will;Noone, Kevin;Persson, Asa;Chapin, F. Stuart III;Lambin, Eric F.;Lenton, Timothy M.;Scheffer, Marten;Folke, Carl;Schellnhuber, Hans Joachim;Nykvist, Björn;de Wit, Cynthia A.;Hughes, Terry;van der Leeuw, Sander;Rodhe, Henning;Sörlin, Sverker;Snyder, Peter K.;Costanza, Robert;Svedin, Uno;Falkenmark, Malin;Karlberg, Louise;Corell, Robert W.;Fabry, Victoria J.;Hansen, James;Walker, Brian;Liverman, Diana;Richardson, Katherine;Crutzen, Paul;Foley, Jonathan A.

Terry Hughes

Abstract

Although Earth has undergone many periods of significant environmental change, the planet’s environment has been unusually stable for the past 10,000 years1–3. This period of stability — known to geologists as the Holocene — has seen human civilizations arise, develop and thrive. Such stability may now be under threat. Since the Industrial Revolution, a new era has arisen, the Anthropocene, in which human actions have become the main driver of global environmental change. This could see human activities push the Earth system outside the stable environmental state of the Holocene, with consequences that are detrimental or even catastrophic for large parts of the world.

Journal

Nature

Publication Name

Nature

Volume

461

ISBN/ISSN

1476-4687

Edition

N/A

Issue

7263

Pages Count

Location

N/A

Publisher

Nature Publishing Group

Publisher Url

N/A

Publisher Location

N/A

Publish Date

N/A

Url

N/A

Date

N/A

EISSN

N/A

DOI

10.1038/461472a