Civilization has an enormous need to utilize the biosphere, that is, the regions of the surface, atmosphere, and bodies of water of the earth occupied by living organisms. The biosphere supplies us with food, raw materials, and increasingly, climate protection.
A study by two European universities looked at functional biosphere integrity, which is essentially the plant world’s ability to regulate the state of the Earth system. Functional biosphere integrity faces massive human interference from consumption of resources, biodiversity loss, and climate change.
Highly detailed analysis modeled water, carbon, and nitrogen flows at a fine resolution over the entire planet and provided a detailed inventory year-by-year since the year 1600. Each area is then assigned a status based on its tolerance limits of ecosystem change. An area can either be a Safe Operating Space, a Zone of Increasing Risk, or a High-Risk Zone.
As the Industrial Revolution took hold, the proportion of global land area where ecosystem changes went beyond the locally defined safe zone, increased. The current analysis shows that 60% of global land areas are now out of the safe operating space and 38% are facing high risk.
Human demand for biomass continues to grow. The Earth system is increasingly stressed as humanity channels it into its own uses through harvested crops, residues, and timber. At the same time, photosynthesis activity is reduced by land cultivation and sealing off land with construction. We are not good for the biosphere.
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60 percent of the world’s land area is in a precarious state
Photo, posted September 14, 2024, courtesy of Jan Helebrant via Flickr.
Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio
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