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A safe operating space for humanity

Identifying and quantifying planetary boundaries that must not be transgressed could help prevent human activities from causing unacceptable environmental change, argue Johan Rockström and colleagues.

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Figure 1: Beyond the boundary.

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See Editorial, page 447 . Join the debate. Visit http://tinyurl.com/boundariesblog to discuss this article. For more on the climate, see http://www.nature.com/climatecrunch .

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Rockström, J., Steffen, W., Noone, K. et al. A safe operating space for humanity. Nature 461, 472–475 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/461472a

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