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The concept of planetary boundaries first emerged in its initial version in 2009 thanks to the work of scientists including Johan Rockström from the Stockholm Resilience Center (SRC) and was updated in 2015 and 2023. They allow us to monitor and analyze human pressures on the Earth system. The SRC defined environmental thresholds, quantified using measurable indicators that must not be exceeded, to preserve the stability and resilience of the Earth system. This tool aims to keep Earth's ecosystems within a safe operating space, avoiding abrupt, non-linear, potentially catastrophic changes. These "planetary boundaries" serve as a crucial benchmark for guiding our actions while ensuring the balance of biological and physical cycles.
Nine planetary boundaries have been defined to monitor and analyze human pressures on the Earth system. Each is based on precise, quantifiable indicators, progressively developed. Some have been more complex to measure than others due to material or methodological constraints. While certain boundaries, such as climate change, have been monitored for a long time, others, like the atmospheric concentration of aerosols, have only been quantified very recently due to the complexity of their indicators, which vary spatially or temporally. In 2025, the seventh boundary (ocean acidification) was crossed. It is understood through an indicator that combines pH (varying with temperature, depth, currents, and seasons) and the concentration of available calcium carbonate. Indicators are thus subject to constant refinement.
In 2012, a representation of planetary boundaries, combined with social indicators, was developed, quickly dubbed the "doughnut" due to its shape. Proposed by Kate Raworth and popularized in her book Doughnut Economics, it offers a synthetic visualization of planetary boundaries. At the heart of the doughnut, a safe operating space is represented in green. The status of various transgressions appears in red on the periphery.
This representation method provides an immediate visualization of exceeded thresholds and associated social suffering. However, it is not without its critics: it did not allow for comparisons (for example, between groups of countries based on their level of development) and its infrequent updates limited its operational use.
This representation was therefore improved by economists Kate Raworth and Andrew Fanning. It will now be possible to use three distinct doughnuts reflecting the nine boundaries as well as social indicators for three distinct country groups: the richest 20%, the middle 40%, and the poorest 40%. It is very clear that the wealthiest countries place a greater burden on the Earth system and are solely responsible for 40% of the overshoots. Meanwhile, the poorest 40% suffer 60% of the deprivations. This work highlights that planetary stability and social justice are inseparable, and it also warns about the limitations of the unlimited growth paradigm.
The planetary boundaries theory and the doughnuts pave the way for new studies and alternative development models such as regenerative economics, post-growth, redirection or resilience. These new models are no longer centered on GDP, growth, and performance but on ecological regeneration, equitable redistribution of global resources, and “bifurcation.” Respecting planetary boundaries requires profound changes in economic, social, and political models.