Here’s Johan Rockström (Executive Director of the Stockholm Resilience Centre) writing at the start of WWF’s Living Planet Report 2016.
A RESILIENT EARTH FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS
It is rare that a scientific idea fundamentally alters our worldview. Copernicus’s realization that the Earth orbits the sun is one such example. Darwin’s theory of evolution is another. The Anthropocene – the defining concept fry’s pharmacy la canada and lambert in WWF’s Living Planet Report 2016 – is another.
Copernicus kick-started the scientific revolution. His realization and those that followed in his wake – from Kepler, Galileo, Newton – have allowed us to navigate our planet and solar system, and helped create the world we now live in. And Darwin’s insights forced us to re-evaluate our place on Earth. Thanks to these insights nothing will be the same again.
In a similar way the Anthropocene shifts our world on its axis. This single word encapsulates the fact that human activity now affects Earth’s life support system. It conveys the notions of deep time – the past and future – and the uniqueness of today. Beyond geology and Earth system science, it captures the profound responsibility we now must shoulder. It provides a viagra without prescription new lens viagra approval date to see our human footprint and it communicates the urgency with which we must now act. The dominant worldview of infinite natural resources, of externalities and exponential growth, is at an end. We are no longer a small world on a big planet. We are now a big world on a small planet, where we have reached a saturation point. Unsustainability at all scales, from localized deforestation to air pollution from cars, hits the planetary ceiling, putting our future at risk. Fifty years of exponential growth has accumulated to such an extent that we have reached Planetary Boundaries – and crashed through them.
This WWF Living Planet Report comes at a critical juncture following the remarkable successes in 2015 of the Paris Agreement on climate change and the agreement on the Sustainable Development Goals for people and planet. buy cialis online The 2016 report is an essential assessment of the state of the planet and it is a shock to read. It synthesizes the mountain of evidence showing the Earth system is under increasing threat: climate, biodiversity, ocean health, deforestation, the water cycle, the nitrogen cycle, the carbon cycle.
The conclusion is stark: the planetary stability our species has enjoyed for 11,700 years, that has allowed civilization to flourish, can no longer be relied upon.
Yet, I am optimistic for our future. In the 20th century we solved some of the biggest challenges in our history. Many diseases have been eradicated. Child and maternal health is improving. Poverty is decreasing. And the ozone hole is beginning to stabilize. However, to make greater progress will necessitate brave new innovations and shifts in thinking to enable collective action across the world. In short, we need an urgent transition to a world that works within Earth’s safe operating space. What the Anthropocene teaches viagraed-noprescription.com us, and which is articulated in detail in the following pages, is the need for a grand transformation. The Living Planet Report provides the necessary thought leadership and vision to put the world on a sustainable trajectory based on systems thinking – bestotc-viagraonline.com and starting with the food and energy systems. bestotc-viagraonline.com I am confident this will contribute to the momentum to move from talk to action to ensure a resilient Earth for future generations.