ON SPAREBLUSS: The planet’s nature cannot keep up with humanity’s behaviour, according to new research. The picture is from 2015 and shows Scandinavia. Southern Norway is on the left, while the green arc is the Northern Lights. Photo: NASA
Human behavior has pushed the world into the danger zone, say 28 researchers. Still, there is one thing moving forward.
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A new study states that human behavior has exceeded the threshold of what the earth can withstand. What is happening is that people are pushing the planet to the limit. This research is innovative because it cuts across professional disciplines and analyzes a complex picture. The Earth is like a “sick patient”, according to the 28 researchers behind the article. Show more
“The world is far outside the safe space for humanity,” it reads the recent research.
What does that mean?
– The Earth’s capacity has been blown, explains climate researcher Hans Olav Hygen to VG.
He draws lines for economics:
– The earth spends more money than it receives. Now we have reached the point where the world is a bankrupt estate.
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FLAMES: A father hugs his son as the wildfires rage. The picture was taken in Greece this summer. Photo: ALEXANDROS AVRAMIDIS / Reuters / NTBAV DEFORESTATION: The Amazon is the world’s largest rainforest, but 10 percent of it has disappeared. That’s equivalent to an area the size of Texas. On the left is a soybean plantation. Photo: Leo Correa / AP / NTBTØRKE: Farmers in Kenya look at the skeletons of their dead animals. They have lost their lives due to drought. The picture was taken in November 2022. Photo: Brian Inganga / AP / NTB
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FLAMES: A father hugs his son as the wildfires rage. The picture was taken in Greece this summer. Photo: ALEXANDROS AVRAMIDIS / Reuters / NTB
28 researchers have analyzed what are called “planetary boundaries” – or “nature’s endurance limit”, as it has been called in Norwegian.
Hi?
Hygen explains:
– This is about how much resources we actually use, and how much we can use to be sustainable.
One good news – and eight bad
The research states that the earth has exceeded the threshold for what it can withstand in six out of nine areas.
Namely these:
Climate changeDeforestationLoss of biodiversitySynthetic chemicals, such as plasticsDeteriorationDeteriorationA complicated word for deterioration. of fresh water Use of nitrogen
In addition, the earth is completely borderline in two further areas: Ocean acidification Ocean acidification Ocean acidification is a term for a decreasing pH value in seawater, which can lead to serious consequences for species that live in the sea. It happens as a result of increased uptake of CO2 from the air as the CO2 content in the atmosphere rises. Source: NTB and air pollution.
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NOT CORONA, BUT: A woman protects herself from bad Beijing air with a protective mask in March 2017. Photo: NICOLAS ASFOURI / AFP / NTBWATER SHORTAGE: Reserves are dwindling. Here from Arizona in June 2022. Photo: John Locher / AP / NTBNEDBRENT: This summer’s forest fires in Hawaii spread to the cities. At least 111 people lost their lives. Photo: JUSTIN SULLIVAN / AFP / NTB
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NOT CORONA, BUT: A woman protects herself from bad Beijing air with a protective mask in March 2017. Photo: NICOLAS ASFOURI / AFP / NTB
Fortunately, there is a bright spot!
We have tightened up when it comes to breaking down the ozone layer. The ozone layer is a glass layer in the atmosphere that protects life on earth from UV radiation from the sun. Emissions of so-called CFC gases previously led to damage to this layer, but now the use of such gases is strictly regulated. This is the only area in which scientists believe we are safe.
Also read: Selection: This is how Norway can save the world from climate catastrophe
– The million dollar question
What is happening, then, is that people are pushing the earth to the limit.
– When people push the cycle of how nature and climate work, the system does not have the capacity to keep up, says Hygen.
RESEARCHER: Hygen is head of the department for climate services at the Meteorological Institute. Photo: Magne Velle / Meteorological Institute
The climate scientist explains that the report conveys something of the same as World Overconsumption Day – i.e. the day when humanity has used up all the world’s resources for the next year.
This year this was 2 August.
The day comes earlier and earlier.
– Restoring capacity will require extensive and systematic work, says Hygen.
– Is it possible?
– It is the million dollar question The million dollar question Expression for a question that is very important and very difficult, from the English “million dollar question”. This is very frightening.
The new research is innovative because it cuts across academic disciplines, he explains.
The research therefore does not only deal with the climate – but also agriculture and biodiversity, among other things.
POOR: In short: The earth is getting weaker and weaker. Photo: NASA
– Everything is systematized and set in a context of sustainability. The answer is that we are as far from sustainable as it is possible to be.
Hygen continues:
– Once again: Climate scientists blow the big whistle and say that now we have to think again. Are we listening this time?
Failing resilience
Swedish Johan Rockström is among the 28 researchers behind the article.
– This depicts a sick patient, as the pressure on the planet increases and vital limits are exceeded, says the climate scientist according to the research institute Stockholm Resilience Centre.
Info
This is global climate change
Since the last half of the 19th century, the temperature of the girdle has risen by an average of 0.8 degrees. Most of the increase since the 1950s is at least 95 percent man-made, according to the UN Climate Panel (IPCC). Human influence on the climate is mainly due to the emission of CO₂ and other greenhouse gases that reinforce the atmosphere’s natural greenhouse effect, the greenhouse effect, which means that the temperature on earth is higher than it would otherwise be been, due to CO2 and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The sun heats the earth, and the greenhouse gases stop part of the heat radiation from the earth so that it does not disappear into space. Climate emissions originate from the burning of coal, oil and gas, deforestation, agriculture and various industrial processes. The changes in the climate are expected to be stronger in during the next decades. The consequences will be different in different parts of the world, and some areas may experience positive effects.
Sources: IPCC, NTB
Sea view
He elaborates:
– Science is properly concerned about all the extreme climate events that affect societies across the planet.
– What worries us even more are the increasing signs of the planet’s declining resilience.
It was the summer of 2023 hottest ever measured on earth.
PS! VG has analyzed weather data from 1957 to the present day to show how Norway is changing. See the overview here.
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Published: 17.09.23 at 04:31
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2023-09-17 02:31:27
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