{"id":13079,"date":"2015-10-06T07:22:20","date_gmt":"2015-10-06T12:22:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=13079"},"modified":"2015-10-06T07:22:20","modified_gmt":"2015-10-06T12:22:20","slug":"sociocultural-boundaries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=13079","title":{"rendered":"Sociocultural Boundaries"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"post-thumbnail\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" src=\"http:\/\/prosperouswaydown.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Sociocultural-Boundaries-Header.jpg\" alt=\"Sociocultural Boundaries Header\" width=\"825\" height=\"510\" \/><\/div>\n<header class=\"entry-header\">\n<h3 class=\"entry-title\"><a href=\"http:\/\/prosperouswaydown.com\/abel-sociocultural-boundaries\/\" target=\"_blank\">Sociocultural Boundaries<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"entry-content\">\n<p>Some years ago now a team of Swedish scientists proposed an interesting framework for understanding planetary environmental problems. It generated a range of responses from the environmental community, mostly positive. I had what is undoubtedly a very unusual response to their framework, and while it is perhaps old news, it may still be useful to present it here. As an anthropologist, I see planetary problems from a cultural and evolutionary perspective that could offer a different take on the subject.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_7732\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/prosperouswaydown.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Steffen2015.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-7732\" src=\"http:\/\/prosperouswaydown.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Steffen2015.jpg\" alt=\"Estimates of how the different control variables for seven planetary boundaries have changed from 1950 to present. The green shaded polygon represents the safe operating space. Source: Steffen et al. 2015 \" width=\"750\" height=\"320\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Estimates of how the different control variables for nine planetary boundaries have changed from 1950 to present. The green shaded polygon represents the safe operating space.\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.stockholmresilience.org\/21\/research\/research-programmes\/planetary-boundaries\/planetary-boundaries\/about-the-research\/the-nine-planetary-boundaries.html\" target=\"_blank\">Source: Steffen et al. 2015<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>First, though, I want to say that the identification of the nine interrelated environmental \u2018boundaries\u2019 has been unquestionably of great value\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.stockholmresilience.org\/21\/research\/research-programmes\/planetary-boundaries.html\" target=\"_blank\">(Planetary Boundaries)<\/a>. Raising awareness about the problems and emphasizing nonlinear feedbacks effects, and so the possible triggering of abrupt global environmental changes, are integral to a more sophisticated discussion of climate change and the other problems they highlight. To list them, they are climate change, ocean acidification, ozone depletion, nutrient fluxes, global freshwater use, land use change, biodiversity loss, aerosol loading, and chemical pollution.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_7710\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/prosperouswaydown.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/SteffenExponential.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-7710 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/prosperouswaydown.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/SteffenExponential.jpg\" alt=\"SteffenExponential\" width=\"225\" height=\"293\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The great acceleration of the Anthropocene.\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/rsta.royalsocietypublishing.org\/content\/369\/1938\/842\">Source<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The nine \u2018boundaries\u2019 are concisely represented in their popular diagram. The green space in the center represents the safe operating values. If the wedge exceeds the green space then it has already crossed its threshold and become a threat of flipping to a disastrous state for our human presence on the planet. Worse, the problems are interrelated and interactions are a grave threat. As an example of dangerous interactions, loss of soil moisture, degradation of land to new land types, and biodiversity loss all reduce the ability of ecosystems to sequester CO2, and thus increase greenhouse effects.<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;click on the above link to read the rest of the article&#8230;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sociocultural Boundaries Some years ago now a team of Swedish scientists proposed an interesting framework for understanding planetary environmental problems. It generated a range of responses from the environmental community, mostly positive. I had what is undoubtedly a very unusual response to their framework, and while it is perhaps old news, it may still be [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[9647,153,2602,9649,9650,9648,9646],"class_list":["post-13079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment","tag-a-prosperous-way-down","tag-complex-systems","tag-evolution","tag-feedback","tag-nonlinear-feedback","tag-planetary-environmental-problems","tag-sociocultural-boundaries"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13079"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13079\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13080,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13079\/revisions\/13080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}