ABSTRACT
The line of thinking that describes humanity's home planet as limited and bounded and has emphasised preservation of its life-support systems has, since the widespread emergence of environmental concerns in the 1960s, consistently warned of the dangers of transgressing boundaries. The 'planetary boundaries' hypothesis, developed at the Stockholm Resilience Centre, is the latest incarnation of this thinking, and its rise to prominence coincides with our entry into the Anthropocene epoch. The Anthropocene thesis has brought new prominence to the risk and actuality of transgressing safe planetary boundaries identified with a stable Holocene state of the Earth system. Humans are accused of imperilling 'the safe operating space for humanity with respect to the Earth system' and implored not to overstep 'planetary boundaries' newly calibrated to maintain a 'desirable' Holocene-like state for as long as possible. The planetary boundaries framework raises important questions about relationships between the authority of scientific research, social meaning and political agency.
