Planetary boundaries

This is the Tom Hartman Program.

There are nine planetary boundaries that determine whether life can flourish on Earth.

You know, this is like right out of Star Trek, right? Well, Captain, it looks like they've got a lot of oxygen in the atmosphere.

Oh, good, Scotty.

You know, whatever.

These nine planetary boundaries are climate change, change in biosphere integrity, land system change, freshwater change, modification of biogeochemical flows, introduction of novel entities, you know, like parasitic, you know, or what do you call them, invasive species.

and ocean acidification.

That's all but two of them.

Secretary Kerry, thank you so much for sitting down with me on the sidelines of Building Bridges here in Geneva.

I've heard you previously talk about conversations you've had with environmental scientist Johan Rockström, who is also a past guest on this podcast, and pioneered the Planetary Boundaries framework.

I'd like to get your take.

What indicators are you currently watching as you consider how the world is progressing on climate change in 2026?

But although the window for action is closing, we still have a chance to give our planet a sustainable future.

A new report called Planetary Health Check 2026 was written by more than 60 scientists and assessed the state of interconnected natural systems or planetary boundaries upon which Earth's stability and resilience depend.

When these boundaries are crossed, researchers say there is an increasing risk of serious and irreversible harm.

Meanwhile, The Guardian reported Monday scientists are warning of an ocean phenomenon called a Kelvin wave so severe it could raise sea levels along California by up to a foot.

Aviation roadmaps overshoot planetary limits.

A Nature Communications study finds that swapping in sustainable aviation fuel does not keep aviation within key planetary boundaries through twenty fifty, giving corporate SAF buyers more to ask about than a carbon score.

Current aviation roadmaps, which depend on replacing fossil kerosene with sustainable aviation fuel, SAF, would still push the sector past key planetary boundaries through twenty fifty, a study in Nature Communications finds.

Researchers at the University of Toulouse and partner institutions, led by Bastien Peys, report that every scenario they modeled breaches the climate change and biosphere integrity boundaries while placing heavy demands on energy, land, freshwater, and carbon dioxide, CO2, capture.

Companies buy SAF through airline programs and certificates tied to business travel, and supply is still growing, with North American production and policy moving at different speeds.

A lifecycle emissions figure says little about the resources behind it.

How the study measured the gap.

The team tested roadmaps drawn from the International Civil Aviation Organization, ICAO, the Air Transport Action Group, ATAG, and the European Union's Refuel EU aviation mandates against the Planetary Boundaries framework, which sets limits on pressures such as climate change and biodiversity loss.

Let's start simple.

The planetary boundaries are nine physical and chemical limits.

Together, they act as the planet's life support system.

Scientists first set them back in 2009.

someone I've known in circles really truly professionally for probably about almost 25 years.

He was one of the first to be trained by Al Gore as a climate speaker, and he's truly on a mission to, as he says, to empower billions of global citizens to live an adaptive lifestyle of health and sustainability within the safe operating spaces of our planetary boundaries.

A big fan of Buckminster Fuller, something we both share, and has been active for over two decades.

I like this, preparing us all for the future of work and living to move us out of the Anthropocene into the Symbiocene.

And they've combined the World Model 3, which is from the original Limits to Growth, and got your granders to come in and do an updated version of the World Model 3 from MIT.

And then they've gotten Kate Roworth for the Donut Economics.

And then they've got Professor Dr. Johan Rockström for Planetary Boundaries.

And they've combined those three into this very short book, Earth for All Idea.

Bringing us to our climate emergency.

On Morning Ireland, Justin spoke to Professor Peter Thorne from Maynooth University about a new global report that found seven of the nine planetary boundaries are being breached.

What are the planetary boundaries and why does crossing them matter?

So this group have come up with these nine planetary boundaries.

They're things like climate change, biodiversity loss, ocean acidification and various other things.

And they matter because they're fundamentally the life support to the climate system.