Germany is celebrating its national day of unification today, a public holiday. Younger people cannot imagine how unimaginable it was when I was younger that I'd ever consider myself a citizen of Brandenburg. 

Opposition to industrial poisoning of the environment played a part in toppling power. 

The lives and experiences of my neighbours play little role in public perception today.

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 "Climate activists are under increasing pressure in Europe, Michel Forst, the UN special rapporteur on Environmental Defenders, told Lusa on Monday while expressing his surprise at the violence with which some governments treat them."

"I don’t understand why, but the fact is that more and more politicians in more countries are comparing people who are actually peaceful demonstrators with violent terrorists”.

https://www.euractiv.com/section/politics/news/un-rapporteur-climate-activists-in-europe-under-increasing-pressure/ 

 "Element flow, particularly the flow of carbon, is central to the functioning of the Earth System ... Life on Earth is carbon-based, and so the interactions among carbon, other elements such as nitrogen and phosphorus, and the water cycle provide the basis for a dynamic, well-functioning, stable biosphere that can provide the conditions for live to flourish and, in the longer term, the capability for life to co-evolve with the geophysical components of the Earth system." Will Steffen note, 2021

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 A paper in PNAS last week has the striking title:

⚡"Mutilation of the tree of life via mass extinction of animal genera"

It concludes that "Beyond any doubt, the human-driven sixth mass extinction is more severe than previously assessed and is rapidly accelerating. The current generic extinction rates are 35 times higher than expected background rates prevailing in the last million years."

And that "Such mutilation of the tree of life ... is a serious threat to the stability of civilization."

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 Our new #PlanetaryBoundaries paper is in memory of Will Steffen. It was a huge loss when he passed away while we were working on it.

We had worked together on redefining our approach to functional biosphere integrity. It is now based on the total energy flux into the biosphere and human interference with it. 

And so it was fitting when yesterday, close to midnight, Australian ABC radio called to ask for an interview - and I could publicly credit Will Steffen's contribution in his home country.

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 Here's the Guardian's take on our paper, published today: "Earth ‘well outside safe operating space for humanity’, scientists find"

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/sep/13/earth-well-outside-safe-operating-space-for-humanity-scientists-find 

 💥 And here you have it: 

The new official "Planetary Boundaries" graphic!

👉 For the first time, all boundaries have been quantified
👉 The colour gradients are the same as in the IPCC's "Reasons for Concern", showing increasing risk, not just for climate heating but also other Earth system dimensions
👉 Scaling is logarithmic beyond each boundary

This is the update by the original authors: Johan Rockström, Will Steffen, Katherine Richardson - a group I was privileged to join with my team.

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