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How to plot the climate catastrophe

Nature Physics volume 19, page 301 (2023) Cite this article

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The speaker credited the figure to Steffen, and, after a request, he sent me a copy. In my opinion, it is iconic of our age, and ought to be on the wall of any room where people gather to make decisions about the future management of our planet.

What do we see? First, the human population going upward past eight billion, with growth then slowing to a more linear pattern in wealthier societies. Expansion is at first fast but slows as countervailing forces come into play. We also see water use, energy use and fertilizer consumption expanding similarly, as humanity’s activities place burdens on the Earth system.

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  1. Nature Physics https://www.nature.com/naturephysics

    Mark Buchanan

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  1. Mark Buchanan
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Correspondence to Mark Buchanan.

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Buchanan, M. How to plot the climate catastrophe. Nat. Phys. 19, 301 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-023-01984-x

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