Irreversible

'The interactions between environmental change and human societies have a long and complex history spanning many millennia. They vary greatly through time and from place to place. Despite this spatial and temporal variability, a global perspective has begun to emerge in recent years and to form the framework for a growing body of research within the environmental sciences. Crucial to the emergence of this perspective has been the dawning awareness of two aspects of Earth System functioning. First, that the Earth itself is a single system within which the biosphere is an active, essential component. Secondly, that human activities are now so pervasive and profound in their consequences that they affect the Earth at a global scale in complex, interactive and apparently accelerating ways; humans now have the capacity to alter the Earth System in ways that threaten the very processes and components, both biotic and abiotic, upon which the human species depends.'

excerpt of Global Change and the Earth System.

A Planet Under Pressure. (2005)

The IGBP Series