As human pressures on the Earth System accelerate, several critical global, regional and local thresholds are close or have been exceeded. Once these have been passed, abrupt and possibly irreversible changes to the life-support functions of the planet are likely to occur, with significant adverse implications for human well-being. An example of an abrupt change at a regional scale is the collapse of freshwater lake and estuary ecosystems due to eutrophication; an abrupt and irreversible example is the accelerated melting of the Arctic ice-sheet, as well as glacial melt, due to an amplification of global warming (Figure 1).
As human pressures on the Earth System accelerate, several critical global, regional and local thresholds are close or have been exceeded. Once these have been passed, abrupt and possibly irreversible changes to the life-support functions of the planet are likely to occur, with significant adverse implications for human well-being. An example of an abrupt change at a regional scale is the collapse of freshwater lake and estuary ecosystems due to eutrophication; an abrupt and irreversible example is the accelerated melting of the Arctic ice-sheet, as well as glacial melt, due to an amplification of global warming (Figure 1).
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