What are the nine planetary boundaries?
The nine planetary boundaries
- Stratospheric ozone depletion.
- Loss of biosphere integrity (biodiversity loss and extinctions)
- Chemical pollution and the release of novel entities.
- Climate Change.
- Ocean acidification.
- Freshwater consumption and the global hydrological cycle.
- Land system change.
What is biosphere integrity?
“Loss of biodiversity” is now called “biosphere integrity”, recognising the interdependencies of species and focusing on the impact of humans on ecosystem functioning.
What is the most important planetary boundary?
Biosphere Integrity: The functional integrity of ecosystems is a core planetary boundary because of the many ecoservices they provide, from pollination to clean air and water.
What is a novel entity?
Novel entities have been broadly defined as, “things created and introduced into the environment by human beings that could have positive or negative disruptive effects on the earth system and may include new substances or new forms of existing substances such as synthetic chemicals, radioactive materials.
What is planetary thinking?
“Planetary thinking means taking the Earth as a planet seriously: from the Earth’s core to interplanetary space, from nanoseconds to deep time, from elementary particles to the Earth’s mass. If interactions between our home planet and ourselves are at the center, a planetary knowledge paradigm takes shape.
Is plastic a novel entity?
Chemicals at large, including plastics, have been identified as fulfilling the characteristics of a novel entity.
What are novel chemicals?
Novel chemicals were traditionally extracted from medicinal plants or produced synthetically. However, new development in the field of bioengineering has allowed production of novel products from plants such as edible and industrial oils as well as specific chemicals which could be used as foods with remedial effects.
What is novel entity?
What are the novel entities?
“Novel entities” can broadly be defined as “things created and introduced into the environment by human beings that could have disruptive effects on the earth system.” These may include synthetic organic pollutants, radioactive materials, genetically modified organisms, nanomaterials, and/or micro-plastics.
How do POPs travel?
Because they can be transported by wind and water, most POPs generated in one country can and do affect people and wildlife far from where they are used and released. They persist for long periods of time in the environment and can accumulate and pass from one species to the next through the food chain.
Why are POPs toxic?
POPs pose a particular hazard because of four characteristics: they are toxic; they are persistent, resisting normal processes that break down contaminants; they accumulate in the body fat of people, marine mammals, and other animals and are passed from mother to fetus; and they can travel great distances on wind and …
Why are POPs restricted?
Studies also have shown that chronic exposure to low doses of certain POPs can result in reproductive and immune system deficits. Exposure to high levels of certain POPs chemicals – higher than normally encountered by humans and wildlife – can cause serious damage or death.
What are the 12 POPs?
These were a group of 12 highly persistent and toxic chemicals: aldrin, chlordane, DDT, dieldrin, endrin, heptachlor, hexachlorobenzen, mirex, polychlorinated biphenyls, polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins, polychlorinated dibenzofurans, and toxaphen.
How are humans exposed to POPs?
In the general population, exposure to POPs comes primarily from the consumption of animal fat like fatty fish, meat and milk products; the highest POP concentrations being commonly found in fatty fish [15–26].
Why are POPs banned?
They are toxic chemicals that adversely affect human health and the environment around the world. Because they can be transported by wind and water, most POPs generated in one country can and do affect people and wildlife far from where they are used and released.