The rate at which new artificial substances are released into the environment endangers the habitability of the earth. This is the conclusion reached by a working group led by Linn Persson from the Stockholm Environment Institute in the journal Environmental Science & Technology. The background is the concept of "planetary boundaries" formulated in 2009, the crossing of which would make the earth uninhabitable in the long term. One of these limitations is how many new and previously unknown artificial compounds enter ecosystems – these can affect ecosystems and biodiversity in different ways. According to the team, the number and quantity of artificial substances already exceeds the limit up to which the consequences of this contamination can be assessed or even controlled.
Around 350,000 artificial fabrics are currently available; The production of such chemicals rose by around 50 times in the decades since 1950. The range of these chemicals in particular grows faster than ever before. Some of these released substances are toxic, others, such as antibiotics or hormone -like substances in wastewater, have undesirable effects in the environment, and still others are almost indestructible and accumulate in the environment - for example, the fluorine -containing PFAs. It is only known of a small fraction of what effects you have on organisms and ecosystems.
Although artificial chemical pollution was already referred to as one of the planetary boundaries in 2009, it was simply unknown where humanity stands relative to this limit. There are many examples of impressive chemical pollution, such as microplastics, which are now literally everywhere, or industrial chemicals that can be detected in everyone's blood. But it is absolutely not clear how serious the damage really is and whether its entirety adds up to an existential problem.
In fact, there is no simple yardstick - the actual threat from all of these substances is unknown. Because the core problem is that there are many unknown substances with unknown effects. That is why the team around Persson opted for a quasistatist approach: if you cannot monitor the artificial substances and their effects, examine it and, if necessary, keep under control, then one of them will eventually become an existential danger if you only produce enough. And in the opinion of the working group, that is the current situation.
The conclusion: If nothing changes, things will go wrong at some point. Pollution of the environment with artificial substances is one of a total of nine planetary boundaries identified in the 2009 publication. In addition, the human pollution of the geochemical nitrogen and phosphorus cycles and the average extinction rate are considered to have been safely exceeded. In addition, experts see the limit within reach when it comes to land use and climate change. Water use, ocean acidification and ozone holes are currently considered to be uncritical. The role of atmospheric aerosols has not yet been calculated.
