Still image from NASA visualization shows ocean alkalinity for May 2015, generated by satellite data from NASA’s Aquarius mission. NASA / JPL + Rana Fine Why you can trust us Scientists have found that Earth may soon pass another planetary boundary, meaning it could be operating outside of the safe limits for seven of the nine defined planetary boundaries. The Planetary Health Check report , prepared by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), is a new assessment that determines the state of the planetary boundaries. For its first edition, the report found that Earth is near the boundary for ocean acidification. “Our updated diagnosis shows that vital organs of the Earth system are weakening, leading to a loss of resilience and rising risks of crossing tipping points,” said Levke Caesar , scientist at PIK and a lead author of the report. The planetary boundaries are a framework in which Earth has nine major areas that it can operate safely: climate change, biosphere integrity, land-system change, freshwater use, biogeochemical flows, novel entities, stratospheric ozone depletion, atmospheric aerosol loading and ocean acidification. The framework was first developed in 2009 by Johan Rockström, former director of the Stockholm Resilience Centre and current director of PIK, along with 28 scientists from around the world. When the framework was introduced, scientists determined that Earth had passed three boundaries, including climate change, biosphere integrity and biogeochemical flows. View this post on Instagram A post shared by World Economic Forum (@worldeconomicforum) By 2023, scientists determined Earth had crossed three additional boundaries, including land-system change, freshwater use/change and novel entities, which includes plastics. But now, ocean acidification is close to passing its boundary, putting marine life at risk. According to scientists, there are two main reasons for increasing ocean acidification. “One is [that] the indicator […]