Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Can we push the Earth too far?


Gaia Hypothesis (at least in my interpretation) seems to imply that the Earth is a resilient system and will maintain its homeostasis --though life might be uncomfortable for humans in the mean time, the planet will go on.

However, a recent article in Nature makes one think.

Earth is outside of Safe Operating Space.

"We are on the verge of pushing nature into a state of instability like nothing humanity has seen before, according to a study published in the journal Nature.

The study, which attempted for the first time to come up with real numbers for a set of conditions beyond which Earth may not be able to recover, found that we may have already crossed several tipping points."

Image from NASA Visible Earth