The Business Conventions for the Climate (CEC, the equivalent of the Citizen’s Convention for the Climate, but company-wide) in the Lyon Basin and the Alps have just revealed the names of the top 35 leaders who are committed to work between February and next December on a transformation of its business model “compatible with planetary boundaries”.
That is, at least 8.5 days out of 11 months for a six-session “learning-to-do” course. The headquarters of the group are Sébastien Godin, of Comptoir des signals (7 people, management consultancy, in Groisy), Pascal de Thiersant, of the Société des 3 vallées (660 people, in Courchevel), Sébastien Berteloodt, of Böllhoff Otalu (430 people, in La Ravoire) and Olivier Nicollin, of Nicomatic (450 people, in Bons-en-Chablais).
“We now understand the variables and thresholds of 8 of the 9 planetary boundaries. And of these 8 documented limits, 6 have already exceeded the alert threshold. »
The structure of planetary boundaries
The following text is taken from the Final Report of the 1st Conference of Companies for the Climate.
“Far from being a stable system, our planet Earth has experienced particularly fluctuating conditions in its history. As shown in the diagram below showing the evolution of temperatures over the last 500 million years, these have varied considerably both upwards and downwards. It goes without saying that with temperatures of +14°C or -5°C compared to the current average, the world looked nothing like the one we know today.
10,000 years ago, climatic and temperature conditions stabilized in a way that allowed for the subsequent rise of civilizations that led to the world as we know it. These balanced conditions are particularly conducive to life on Earth, human and non-human. Preserving them is therefore a great challenge. So scientists have tried to understand the processes behind this balance. They have identified 9 processes, translated into 9 “planetary boundaries” to which particular attention must be paid.
As in any complex system, these boundaries interact with each other and it is important to understand these interactions. Some go in the direction of maintaining equilibrium conditions. This is what we call negative feedback. When one variable evolves in a direction that threatens the system to go out of equilibrium, another intervenes to bring the system back to its initial state. When we run, our body heats up. What could threaten our physical integrity and our health if a process were not implemented to eliminate this excess of calories: sweat. Our body can thus maintain its integrity.
“By overcoming several of the 9 planetary limits at the same time, there is a risk of purely and simply passing from a regime of globally negative feedbacks to a regime of globally positive feedbacks, with the consequent spillage of the Earth system and consequences that are difficult to predict. Either way, the result would be dramatic. ”
The same goes for the Earth system. The increase in temperatures deriving from global warming increases evaporation and therefore the formation of clouds, which increases the albedo effect (albedo is the reflecting power of a surface. The albedo effect therefore allows part of the energy to be returned received solar radiation to the upper layers of the atmosphere and reduces temperatures.)
On the contrary, some feedbacks are positive: a process that goes “messy” induces disintegration Where are we today? another process that reinforces the breaking of the first, with a ripple effect and a run risk. For example, global warming causes glaciers to melt, reducing the albedo and increasing the heat absorbed by the Earth, further raising temperatures and melting ice.
By overcoming several of the 9 planetary limits at the same time, there is the risk of passing purely and simply from a globally negative feedback regime to a globally positive feedback regime, with the consequent leakage of the Earth system and consequences that are difficult to predict. Either way, the outcome would be tragic.
Where are we today?
Most planetary boundaries have control variables and thresholds that should not be exceeded, at the risk of threatening the integrity of the process. We now understand the variables and thresholds of 8 of the 9 planetary boundaries. And of these 8 documented limits, 6 have already exceeded the alert threshold. The limit most clearly exceeded is that of the integrity of biodiversity. This is especially concerning since this is the web of life, which interacts directly with all other boundaries.
The biochemical cycles of nitrogen and phosphorus are also largely outdated, mainly due to the massive use of nitrogen and phosphate fertilizers by agriculture. The introduction of new entities is a limitation recently made operational, which obviously is also being exceeded. These are entities that the environment is unable to bio-assimilate and which therefore pollute our environment in a lasting and persistent way (plastic, heavy metals, endocrine disruptors, etc.). Global warming is obviously a process that has passed its threshold, with a concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere exceeding the safe level of 350 parts per million (ppm).
The same is true for land use changes. Therefore, when a forest is cut down for agricultural and/or urbanization needs, not only all its biodiversity disappears, but also all the services that this forest provides, such as carbon sequestration (which negatively affects global warming ), rainwater regulation (negatively affecting the water cycle), etc. Finally, the green water cycle is the latest limit studied which also exceeds its alert threshold.
Strictly speaking we are playing with fire. Scientists believe that the equilibrium conditions at work for 10,000 years could have been maintained for at least another 20,000 years (see well below) without human intervention. We interrupt the processes of maintaining balances, with the risk of transforming globally negative feedbacks into globally positive feedbacks, which would then lead to a sudden deterioration of living conditions on Earth. »
For further : https://cec-impact.org/ et https://www.lumia-edu.fr/
