Loh, Christine --- "Foreword" [2011] ELECD 723; in Cullen, Richard; VanderWolk, Jefferson; Xu, Yan (eds), "Green Taxation in East Asia" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2011)

Book Title: Green Taxation in East Asia

Editor(s): Cullen, Richard; VanderWolk, Jefferson; Xu, Yan

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781849803007

Section Title: Foreword

Author(s): Loh, Christine

Number of pages: 4

Extract:

Foreword
Christine Loh

Human activities are putting pressures on Planet Earth on such a scale
that there could be abrupt global environmental change.
Scientists have proposed a new approach to global sustainability by
identifying and defining "planetary boundaries" within which human-
ity can operate safely. Nine planetary boundaries have been identified:
climate change; ocean acidification; stratospheric ozone; biogeochemical
nitrogen cycle and phosphorus cycle; global freshwater use; land system
change; loss of biological diversity; chemical pollution; and atmospheric
aerosol loading. The scientists observed that humanity has probably
already transgressed three of these planetary boundaries: climate change,
biodiversity loss, and changes to the global nitrogen cycle.1
Moreover, the scientists noted that these systems are interdependent in
the sense that Planet Earth's various systems function as a whole. They
put forward the hypothesis that transgressing one or more planetary
boundaries may tip Planet Earth into a state which could trigger non-
linear, abrupt environmental change within continental-to planetary-scale
systems. Moreover, because of the interdependence of these systems,
transgressing one may shift the position of, or result in transgressing, other
boundaries. The scientists emphasized that changes to Planet Earth's func-
tioning system do not mean that the planet will not survive ­ it will, but
in another state, but humans are the ones who will be affected. The social
impact of transgressing planetary boundaries will depend on the social-
ecological resilience of the affected societies.2
Humans are thus part of a complex web of relationships involving
Planet Earth, without ...