Big World, Small Planet: Abundance Within Planetary Boundaries

by Johan Rockström

But soon, by almost every measure, our growing populations and unsustainable habits piled on more and more environmental pressures. No matter which parameter you chose to look at—whether CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere from fossil fuels; nitrogen concentrations in the soil from agriculture and industry; methane concentrations in the air from livestock; ozone depletion over Antarctica; rising surface temperatures; floods and other extreme weather disasters; disappearing fish stocks; coastal disruption from fish farms; nitrogen pollution of coastal waters; loss of tropical rainforests; wild habitat converted to croplands; or increased rates of biodiversity loss—the trend was the same, with a sharply rising curve heading in the wrong direction