Ortiz Rios, Rodomiro Octavio
- Department of Plant Breeding, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Abstract
We explore the role of agriculture in destabilizing the Earth system at the planetary scale, through examining nine planetary boundaries, or "safe limits": land-system change, freshwater use, biogeochemical flows, biosphere integrity, climate change, ocean acidification, stratospheric ozone depletion, atmospheric aerosol loading, and introduction of novel entities. Two planetary boundaries have been fully transgressed, i.e., are at high risk, biosphere integrity and biogeochemical flows, and agriculture has been the major driver of the transgression. Three are in a zone of uncertainty i.e., at increasing risk, with agriculture the major driver of two of those, land-system change and freshwater use, and a significant contributor to the third, climate change. Agriculture is also a significant or major contributor to change for many of those planetary boundaries still in the safe zone. To reduce the role of agriculture in transgressing planetary boundaries, many interventions will be needed, including those in broader food systems.
Keywords
aerosol loading; biogeochemical flows; biosphere integrity; chemical pollution; climate change; diversity; freshwater; land-system change; nitrogen; ocean acidification; ozone depletion; phosphorous
Published in
Ecology and Society
2017, volume: 22, number: 4, article number: 8
SLU Authors
Global goals (SDG)
UKÄ Subject classification
Agricultural Science
Ecology
Environmental Sciences and Nature Conservation
Publication identifier
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-09595-220408
Permanent link to this page (URI)
https://res.slu.se/id/publ/90771