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The planetary boundaries framework was first published in 2009 under the leadership of Johan Rockström – at that time Director of the SRC, today Director of the Potsdam Institute, and co-author of the new study. The planetary boundaries demarcate the safe operating space for humanity. Water is one of the nine regulators of the state of the Earth system, and is the sixth boundary that scientists have assessed as being transgressed. Other transgressed boundaries are: climate change, biosphere integrity, biogeochemical cycles, land system change and, in 2022, novel entities, which includes plastic and other human-made chemicals.

(Source: Planetary boundaries update: freshwater boundary exceeds safe limits)

The geographical distribution of global and regional tipping elements, colour-coded according to the best estimate for their temperature thresholds, beyond which the element would likely be 'tipped'. Figure designed at PIK (under cc-by licence), based on Armstrong McKay et al., Science (2022).

(Source: Aggregated level of climate hazard for IEA member and association countries)