Planetary Boundaries and Donut Economics

The planetary boundaries are about helping us understand that there are- -limits to how much we can disrupt the earth’s life support systems- -on which we depend for our survival. Like this traffic light here. In the green zone, it tells us we’re in a safe operating space. We’re working within the safe limits for the boundary, as we are in the ozone. This is a powerful example. The ozone is in the green space, because we were able to act to change- -that boundary. When we move into the yellow zone, it means we’ve moved into- -an area of increased risks of negative impacts coming from the- -changes we’re making to this boundary.

We can see this in the case of climate change, and we also- -know that ocean acidification is very close to moving into the yellow zone. When we move into the red zone, it tells us we have a situation where we can have- -tipping points and massive changes as a result of our impacts on the boundary. If we cross two boundaries, there is a risk that we have interacting- -tipping points across the boundaries. This tells us we need to stop what we’re doing and change radically. That is the case for the nitrogen, phosphorus and biodiversity boundaries- -right now. The doughnut adds another facet to the planetary boundaries.

Its outer limits are the limits of the green safe operating space- -that I just described. And then there is an inner layer with 12 social standards that have been- -defined and identified to be able to provide a minimum good living standard for humans. And we don’t want fall below those. If we fall below those we fall into areas of social injustice. So why are we failing on both? Let’s go and ask Kim.