Planetary Boundaries: Exceeding Earth's Safe Limits
The Great Simplification #134 with Johan Rockström
While the mainstream conversation about our planet’s future is heavily dominated by the topic of climate change, there are other systems which are just as critical to consider when thinking about the health and livability of our world. Just like climate change, each of these systems has its own limits within which humanity and the biosphere can continue to develop and thrive for generations to come. However, each also has a critical tipping point - known as a Planetary Boundary - past which Earth’s systems may no longer be able to self-regulate or remain the comfortable and predictable home in which we’ve spent our entire history as a species.
In this episode, I speak with environmental scientist Johan Rockström to unpack his team’s work on Planetary Boundaries and the pressure that humanity is putting on them.
How do these critical systems work to regulate the stability and resilience of the biosphere, and how do we measure their health and tipping points? What are we risking as we continue on our path towards pushing each of these interdependent systems past the point where they can continue to function? Is it possible to reverse the damage that consumptive, growth-based systems have already done to our planetary home and prevent further destruction?
In case you missed it…
This week I was joined by Nora Bateson, Rex Weyler, Vanessa Andreotti, and Daniel Schmachtenberger to talk about the ecology of communication. This important conversation addresses some of the traps and pitfalls of modern relating, including the use of increasingly performative language and the erosion of authentic connection, both of which can leave us feeling isolated from one another. The panelists then offer ideas for how to shift from this axis of polarization into a space of mutual learning together, no matter how disparate each other’s views may seem at first glance.
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Thanks as ever Nate... Some interesting insights... Here's a response surrounding the theme of communication... Communicating the "most important message of them all" is perhaps the deepest challenge of our times. WIP:
https://substack.com/home/post/p-147606898?r=39jbmo&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web