Humans already 44% doomed but does anyone care?

As if the murderous rise of Islamic State, the continued mayhem in the Middle East, the bloody violence unleashed by Boko Haram in Nigeria, the rise of right-wing nationalists from the United States to Ukraine, the increasing terrorist attacks across the globe, the standoff between the Washington and Moscow that threatens to lead toward global economic and military emergencies were not enough of an indication that the world was heading toward a real crisis, comes something even more devastating from researchers at an American university.

Human civilization has exceeded four of the nine planetary boundaries critical for maintaining a "safe operating space", says a study conducted by an 18-member research team, led by Steve Carpenter, director of the Madison Center for Limnology at the University of Wisconsin. The four planetary boundaries humans have crossed are climate change, loss of biosphere integrity, change in land system and altered biogeochemical cycles like the surplus of phosphorus and nitrogen, says the study published in the journal Science on Jan 15. That four of the nine metrics are already beyond the point of no return means human civilization is already 44 percent doomed.

Carpenter, in a statement, said this should be a warning to policymakers that "we're running up to and beyond the biophysical boundaries that enable human civilization as we know it to exist".