Crossing Critical Planetary Thresholds

This World Population Day is perhaps the most critical one since it was first observed on 11 July 1990, back when global population was ‘only’ some 5 billion people. Whether you think that today’s 8.2 billion people on the planet is a lot, or you believe that the world is experiencing a fertility crisis, there’s no denying our collective human impact on everything around us.

Breaching Planetary Boundaries

Our planetary footprint is such that many scientists believe we are in the Anthropocene Epoch, the period during which human activity has been the dominant influence on climate and the environment. Of the nine critical planetary boundaries – defined as the safe operating space for humanity by identifying limits to human activities that could destabilize the Earth's systems and lead to irreversible environmental change – we’ve passed six of them.

To make matters worse, the world is on the verge of passing a seventh boundary, that of ocean acidification.

Per the United Nations, It took hundreds of thousands of years for the world population to grow to 1 billion – then in just another 200 years or so, it grew seven-fold. Projections are for possibly 9.7 billion in 2050 and 10.9 billion in 2100.

This dramatic growth has been driven largely by:

• increasing numbers of people surviving to reproductive age;

• major changes in fertility rates;

• increasing urbanization and accelerating migration.

At the same time, consumption  levels have dramatically increased. All of this has had detrimental effects on the environment. These trends, as noted by the UN, will have far-reaching implications for generations to come.

In a recent TEDx talk, Professor Corey Bradshaw from Flinders University presented modelling that shows a smaller global population is more likely to experience more economic stability and face fewer environmental challenges.

Professor Bradshaw said, “We also need to ensure everyone can make their own decisions about family size by empowering women globally, and ensuring unlimited access to high-quality, free, non-coercive, and culturally sensitive family-planning services.”

Solutions At Our Fingertips

We know what many of the solutions are to getting to a healthy, sustainable and thriving planet. Here are some of the best solutions for human and planetary health to alter our catastrophic trajectory:

• Rights of women and girls

• Indigenous land stewardship

• Set aside land for Nature

• Rights for Nature

• Reproductive rights for all

• Agroecology

• Traditional ecological knowledge

• Alternative economies/economic measures

• Vertical farming

• Plant-based diets

Photo by Marlis Trio Akbar on Unsplash

Lest we think there isn’t money to do anything, keep in mind that world military expenditure reached $2718 billion in 2024, an increase of 9.4 per cent in real terms from 2023 and the steepest year-on-year rise since at least the end of the cold war. Just wait and see how much higher it goes by the end of 2025.

Sadly, our so-called leaders continue to kick the can down the road and make excuses that the cost of doing, well, most anything, is too much. 

Inaction has a high price, more than we can even know right now.  The effects of climate change, rising inequity, decreasing human rights and degradation of the environment that are unfolding all around us can’t be ignored much longer.

Nature will take care of herself; the million dollar question is whether people will take care of ourselves. Will we wake up in time to change course or passively observe how this all plays out?