Open Field Awakening

I remember back in 2009 when the Planetary Boundaries framework first came out, those of us in the Sustainability Context community -- which links ecological & social carrying capacity thresholds & tipping points to performance assessment at sub-system scales (eg organizations) -- met them with open arms, as they provide scientific validation for the existence of carrying capacity thresholds & tipping points, and also created research and data streams for measuring performance against those thresholds. That's why I applaud the recent release of the inaugural edition of the "Planetary Health Check: A Scientific Assessment of the State of the Planet" by Johan Rockstr?m and colleagues at PIK - Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and beyond. Website: https://lnkd.in/e6hGBNHi Report: https://lnkd.in/ebYCQ4Gn The body of research on Planetary Boundaries has, for the past 15 years, primarily advanced through individual paper publications in peer-reviewed journals (and was expertly corralled by Sarah Cornell of Stockholm Resilience Centre for most of this time). To my knowledge, this is the first time that the body of research, knowledge, and framing has been consolidated into a single comprehensive synthesis, geared toward a broader audience than just the scientific community. I particularly appreciate the synthesis of correlation between Planetary Boundary thresholds, and the related Tipping Points in earth systems -- which you can see summarized in the graphic below. Perhaps the most significant aspect of the release of this report is the finding that we are perilously cross to crossing the 7th (of 9) Planetary Boundaries -- on Ocean Acidification. This research documents that the majority of vital earth system boundaries are in "overshoot and collapse" -- to use the term coined by Dana Meadows and her Limits to Growth (1972) co-authors (as lead author, Dana employed the term 5 times in the book, introducing it with the "Standard Run" of the World3 Model that projected the very multiple systems overshoot & collapse that we are experiencing.) We've been operating on what "Overshoot" (1980) author William Catton calls "phantom carrying capacity"... All of this heightens the value of pursuing collapse resilience -- seeking to shift out of overshoot on all PBs (and out of undershoot on associated as well as unassociated Social Foundation thresholds), while simultaneously ruggedizing ourselves for the consequences of collapsing earth systems and social systems. Oh, and it seems significant that the Planetary Boundaries for Business webpage includes a bunch of key initiatives, such as the Science Based Targets Network (SBTN), but it interestingly (one assumes purposefully) omits the Science Based Targets initiative...

"Holding the world's excesses is not up to you... Maybe if we linger by the riverside, new possibilities will visit us... the water is not in the way, the water IS the way... There is a stranger abundance than our notions of penury and scarcity have taught us. But it is not left to you -- you have to be called into it." Bayo Akomolafe's July lecture, "May We Live in Interesting Times," is now live. On our YouTube, you'll also find a Q&A of Bayo in dialogue with Alex Forrester. https://lnkd.in/ejsykCdy