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According to an international team of researchers, four of nine planetary boundaries have now been crossed as a result of human activity. These are:

• climate change

• loss of biosphere integrity

• land-system change

• altered biogeochemical cycles (phosphorus and nitrogen).

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Publishing in the in the journal Science, the team of 18 researchers explain that climate change and biosphere integrity are "core boundaries".

The other five boundaries are:

• Stratospheric ozone depletion

• Ocean acidification

• Freshwater use

• Atmospheric aerosol loading (microscopic particles in the atmosphere that affect climate and living organisms)

• Introduction of novel entities (e.g. organic pollutants, radioactive materials, nanomaterials, and micro-plastics)

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Significantly altering either of the two "core boundaries" would "drive the Earth System into a new state".  Lead author Professor Will Steffen, researcher at the Centre and the Australian National University, Canberra said:

Transgressing a boundary increases the risk that human activities could inadvertently drive the Earth System into a much less hospitable state, damaging efforts to reduce poverty and leading to a deterioration of human wellbeing in many parts of the world, including wealthy countries.