The Washington Post reported on a study called "Planet Health," which scientists examined and evaluated and reported had reached an alarming level of badness.
The newspaper's reporters Victoria Bisset and Ellen Francis quoted Johann Roxtrom, director of Germany's Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and lead author of the study published this week, as saying that humanity is very close to an irreversible transformation, saying it is the first time that measurable limits have been introduced to assess the health of the planet, not only measuring the stability of Earth's ecosystems, but also assessing human well-being and equality between people.
Violation 7 of 8 factors
The assessment in the study, carried out by a team of leading scientists in the field, included 8 basic factors necessary to protect life on Earth and that human activities led to the violation of 7 of these factors.
The eight areas measured were: climate change, aerosols (air pollution), water surface, groundwater, nitrogen fertilizer, phosphorus fertilizer, natural ecosystem integrity, and the functional health of all ecosystems.
The study, published in the journal Nature, assessed each region against two thresholds: first, whether the region would remain "safe," that is, within the levels required for Earth's systems to support humans and other organisms. The second is whether levels can ensure equity between species, present and future generations, and between countries and communities.
The study identified "fair" limits as limits that reduce "significant harm" including "significant loss of life, livelihoods and income, loss of access to nature's contributions to people, loss of land, chronic diseases, injury, malnutrition and displacement" of countries, communities or individuals.
A very worrying situation
The director of Germany's Potsdam Institute said that across the board, the situation was "very worrying", explaining that the effects of breaching these limits are already clear.
Humans are exposed to more extreme events, more droughts, floods, food insecurity, ecosystem collapse, loss of fishery resources and destruction of coral reef systems and livelihoods for 500 million people, he said, citing the devastating floods in Pakistan last year as an example of people being outside a safe and fair climate.
He added that the report made it clear that the land had already exceeded both safe and fair limits in most of the areas measured.
Aerosol is the best of all factors
As for climate change, the study says the planet has exceeded fair, but not safe, limits, meaning that a temperature rise of 1 degree Celsius from pre-industrial levels has been penetrated and harmed human life, but has not yet disrupted the stability of the planet.
Aerosols (air pollution) were the only factor in which there was no breach of safe or fair measures.
Despite the worrying findings, scientists are keen to stress that it is not too late for the planet and hope their report will spur governments and companies to make the changes.