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# Planetary Boundaries: Exploring the Safe Operating Space for Humanity

## Details

**Authors** Rockström, Johan and Steffen, Will and Noone, Kevin J. and Persson, Åsa and Chapin III, F. Stuart and Lambin, Éric F. and Lenton, Timothy M. and Scheffer, Marten and Folke, Carl and Schellnhuber, Hans Joachim and Nykvist, Björn and de Wit, Cynthia A. and Hughes, Terry P. and van der Leeuw, Sander an

**Year** 2009

**Publisher** Ecology and Society, vol. 14, no. 2, art. 32

**Kind of work** article

**Discipline** Environment & Sustainability

**Secondary disciplines** Climatology

**Applied** false

[Read it at the publisher](https://doi.org/10.5751/es-03180-140232) 
10.5751/es-03180-140232

## In authors' words

### What they set out to do (purpose)

To define planetary boundaries within which humanity can operate safely, given that anthropogenic pressures on the Earth system threaten abrupt global environmental change.

### How they did it (methods)

Earth-system synthesis that proposes quantified boundaries for key Earth-system processes.

### What they found (results)

The authors identify nine planetary boundaries and propose quantified limits for seven of them, with atmospheric CO2 concentration listed first. Crossing boundaries risks abrupt, non-linear change in continental- to planetary-scale systems.

## Commentary

### In short

The paper proposes nine limits on Earth-system processes, quantifies seven, and argues that crossing them risks abrupt large-scale environmental change.

### Response

The framework rests on distinctions between a safe and an unsafe state for each process, treats the Earth as a system of interacting subsystems, and attends to interactions among processes. The quantified limits are the authors' proposals and are contested; the abstract does not make perspective a theme. Only the abstract-level material was read.

**Patterns it shows** D, S, R

**Added** 2026-10-28

**How to cite this** Rockström, Johan and Steffen, Will and Noone, Kevin J. and Persson, Åsa and Chapin III, F. Stuart and Lambin, Éric F. and Lenton, Timothy M. and Scheffer, Marten and Folke, Carl and Schellnhuber, Hans Joachim and Nykvist, Björn and de Wit, Cynthia A. and Hughes, Terry P. and van der Leeuw, Sander an (2009). Planetary Boundaries: Exploring the Safe Operating Space for Humanity. Ecology and Society, vol. 14, no. 2, art. 32.