Great post Richard, I can tell some hard work went into this. I found this particularly interesting because I was accepted to Penn’s Landscape Architecture Grad program (though I may not take this up due to lack of funding) - have you thought about connecting with some of the faculty? They’ve produced some interesting work such as this ‘World National Park’ concept.
My understanding is biodiversity losses, freshwater exhaustion, and land system changes are all interrelated anyway. And one of the underlying issues, in my humble opinion, is a dysfunction in humanity’s relationship with nature. As abstract as that sounds, valuing and feeling more connected with nature/environment more broadly may set strong values for preserving environmental/planetary integrity and increasing chances of flourishing—including on other planets should humanity become space-faring species and colonise habitable planets.
Thanks a ton Darren! I’d love to connect with you — and I found the ideas you linked to interesting. Thanks for introducing me to these ideas.
I completely agree with you — I think I ended up focusing on climate change specifically because it is the most clear, well-studied manifestation of “Earth Systems Health” gone wrong and potentially causing existential risk. However, emphasizing a broader need to preserve the stability of Earth’s systems is extremely valuable — and encompasses climate change.
Reducing greenhouse gas emissions may be the most important issue currently, but given our current societal inability to interface with our environment in a way that doesn’t damage it, there may be many other environmental crises in the future that manifest as well that damage our ability to survive. A broader framework encompassing environmental preservation may be necessary to address all of these issues at once.
Great post Richard, I can tell some hard work went into this. I found this particularly interesting because I was accepted to Penn’s Landscape Architecture Grad program (though I may not take this up due to lack of funding) - have you thought about connecting with some of the faculty? They’ve produced some interesting work such as this ‘World National Park’ concept.
I wonder if one solution is removing the bounding of just ‘climate change’ and instead expand things to Earth Systems Health/Integrity more broadly, perhaps using the Planetary Boundaries framework? https://www.stockholmresilience.org/research/planetary-boundaries/the-nine-planetary-boundaries.html
My understanding is biodiversity losses, freshwater exhaustion, and land system changes are all interrelated anyway. And one of the underlying issues, in my humble opinion, is a dysfunction in humanity’s relationship with nature. As abstract as that sounds, valuing and feeling more connected with nature/environment more broadly may set strong values for preserving environmental/planetary integrity and increasing chances of flourishing—including on other planets should humanity become space-faring species and colonise habitable planets.
Thanks a ton Darren! I’d love to connect with you — and I found the ideas you linked to interesting. Thanks for introducing me to these ideas.
I completely agree with you — I think I ended up focusing on climate change specifically because it is the most clear, well-studied manifestation of “Earth Systems Health” gone wrong and potentially causing existential risk. However, emphasizing a broader need to preserve the stability of Earth’s systems is extremely valuable — and encompasses climate change.
Reducing greenhouse gas emissions may be the most important issue currently, but given our current societal inability to interface with our environment in a way that doesn’t damage it, there may be many other environmental crises in the future that manifest as well that damage our ability to survive. A broader framework encompassing environmental preservation may be necessary to address all of these issues at once.
This paper on Assessing climate change’s contribution to global catastrophic risk uses the planetary boundaries framework! And this paper on Classifying global catastrophic risks might also be of interest :)