Humans rely on ecosystems for air, water, food, and shelter. Since the 1950s, however, deforestation and other damage to ecosystems has lowered the habitability of the Earth at an increasing rate.
Maria Ivanova, a professor of global governance at the University of Massachusetts Boston, and Philip Osano, a research fellow at the Stockholm Environment Institute, wrote that the world's ecosystems are at great risk.
An international group of scholars have determined nine "planetary boundaries" that allow the global ecosystem to remain stable, including climate change, fresh water use, and ocean acidification.
Ivanova and Osano wrote that humans have surpassed the safe limits of four of these categories — climate change, land-system change, biogeochemical cycles, and biosphere integrity.
Land-system change refers to the conversion of forests, grasslands, and wetlands to agricultural land, which can harm biodiversity and water flows if done in excess.
Loss of biosphere integrity involves human activity that leads to the extinctions of plants and animals.