— Environment and climate —

Earth: A safe place to live?

What are the planetary boundaries?

It's unthinkable not to have a topic on the enviroment and climate. What we call the environment is important to humans, but not for the planet and life in general. Let's see. The planet has been spinning around its axis for 4.6 billion years and life has been there for about 4 billion years. Humanity won't change that. Nature can withstand quite a lot, if human wellbeing is not considered. Even a meteorite impact did not kill all life. 

So why is the environment important to us? The environment, in which human life is possible and comfotable, is bounded by what is called the planetary boundaries. These delineate the conditions necessary to make - and keep - human life possible, safe, pleasant and worth living. This includes a certain concentration of oxygen, a safe range of temperatures and water with a neutral acidity, and safe ranges for the organisms we consume, which is basically linked to all life on the planet. If we think of ourselves as important, the safe equilibria are better not stretched to the limits. 

Articles about the environment and climate:

• Ocean Planet: Cousteau, whales with legs and aquatic humans.
• Ukraine's chernozems: when bombs hit the soil.
• The Dust Bowl comes to Spain: desertification and soil erosion.
• Pyrocene: life on a blazing planet.
• Drought, Doñana and the Queen of the Marshes.
• Plastic eruption in the Gulf of Naples.
• The tree-of-heaven dilemma: a successful species in a deforested world.
• Planetary boundaries: a safe place for humans?
• Anthropogenic vs. natural climate change: which is advancing faster?
• Soil salinization: food security at risk.
• The nitrogen cycle: a story of food, bacteria and war.
• Ukraine's black gold and the world's most fertile soils.
• The origin of oxygen: when did we start breathing?