A safe operating space for humanity (original) (raw)

Identifying and quantifying planetary boundaries that must not be transgressed could help prevent human activities from causing unacceptable environmental change, argue Johan Rockström and colleagues.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University, Kräftriket 2B, Stockholm, 10691, Sweden
    Johan Rockström, Will Steffen, Kevin Noone, Åsa Persson, Carl Folke, Björn Nykvist, Sverker Sörlin, Robert Costanza, Uno Svedin, Malin Falkenmark, Louise Karlberg & Brian Walker
  2. Stockholm Environment Institute, Kräftriket 2B, Stockholm, 10691, Sweden
    Johan Rockström, Åsa Persson, Björn Nykvist & Louise Karlberg
  3. ANU Climate Change Institute, Australian National University, Canberra ACT, 0200, Australia
    Will Steffen
  4. Department of Applied Environmental Science, Stockholm University, Stockholm, 10691, Sweden
    Kevin Noone & Cynthia A. de Wit
  5. Institute of Arctic Biology, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, 99775, Alaska, USA
    F. Stuart Chapin III
  6. Department of Geography, Université Catholique de Louvainé, 3 place Pasteur, Louvain-la-Neuve, B-1348, Belgium
    Eric F. Lambin
  7. School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, NorwichNorwich, NR4 7TJ, UK
    Timothy M. Lenton
  8. Aquatic Ecology and Water Quality Management Group, Wageningen University, PO Box 9101, HB Wageningen, 6700, the Netherlands
    Marten Scheffer
  9. The Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, PO Box 50005, Stockholm, 10405, Sweden
    Carl Folke
  10. Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, PO Box 60 12 03, Potsdam, 14412, Germany
    Hans Joachim Schellnhuber
  11. Environmental Change Institute and Tyndall Centre, Oxford University, Oxford, OX1 3QY, UK
    Hans Joachim Schellnhuber
  12. ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, 4811, Queensland, Australia
    Terry Hughes
  13. School of Human Evolution & Social Change, Arizona State University, PO Box 872402, Tempe, 85287-2402, Arizona, USA
    Sander van der Leeuw
  14. Department of Meteorology, Stockholm University, Stockholm, 10691, Sweden
    Henning Rodhe
  15. Division of History of Science and Technology, Royal Institute of Technology, Teknikringen 76, Stockholm, 10044, Sweden
    Sverker Sörlin
  16. Department of Soil, Water, and Climate, University of Minnesota, 439 Borlaug Hall, 1991 Upper Buford Circle, St. Paul, 55108-6028, MN, USA
    Peter K. Snyder
  17. Gund Institute for Ecological Economics, University of Vermont, Burlington, 05405, VT, USA
    Robert Costanza
  18. Stockholm International Water Institute, Drottninggatan 33, Stockholm, 11151, Sweden
    Malin Falkenmark
  19. The H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics and the Environment, 900 17th Street, NW, Suite 700, 20006, Washington DC, USA
    Robert W. Corell
  20. Department of Biological Sciences, California State University San Marcos, 333 S Twin Oaks Valley Rd, San Marcos, 92096-0001, CA, USA
    Victoria J. Fabry
  21. NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, 2880 Broadway, New York, 10025, NY, USA
    James Hansen
  22. Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Organization, Sustainable Ecosystems, Canberra, 2601, ACT, Australia
    Brian Walker
  23. Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX1 3QY, UK
    Diana Liverman
  24. Institute of the Environment, University of Arizona, Tucson, 85721, AZ, USA
    Diana Liverman
  25. The Faculty for Natural Sciences, Tagensvej 16, Copenhagen N, 2200, Denmark
    Katherine Richardson
  26. Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, PO Box 30 60, Mainz, 55020, Germany
    Paul Crutzen
  27. Institute on the Environment, University of Minnesota, 325 VoTech Building, 1954 Buford Avenue, St Paul, 55108, MN, USA
    Jonathan A. Foley

Authors

  1. Johan Rockström
  2. Will Steffen
  3. Kevin Noone
  4. F. Stuart Chapin III
  5. Eric F. Lambin
  6. Timothy M. Lenton
  7. Marten Scheffer
  8. Carl Folke
  9. Hans Joachim Schellnhuber
  10. Björn Nykvist
  11. Cynthia A. de Wit
  12. Terry Hughes
  13. Sander van der Leeuw
  14. Henning Rodhe
  15. Sverker Sörlin
  16. Peter K. Snyder
  17. Robert Costanza
  18. Uno Svedin
  19. Malin Falkenmark
  20. Louise Karlberg
  21. Robert W. Corell
  22. Victoria J. Fabry
  23. James Hansen
  24. Brian Walker
  25. Diana Liverman
  26. Katherine Richardson
  27. Paul Crutzen
  28. Jonathan A. Foley

Additional information

See Editorial, page 447 . Join the debate. Visit http://tinyurl.com/boundariesblog to discuss this article. For more on the climate, see http://www.nature.com/climatecrunch .

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Rockström, J., Steffen, W., Noone, K. et al. A safe operating space for humanity.Nature 461, 472–475 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/461472a

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