Measurement and Modeling of Atmosphere-Surface Exchangeable Pollutants (ASEPs) To Better Understand their Environmental Cycling and Planetary Boundaries

Rockström et al. warned that to avoid “unacceptable global change” humanity must operate within nine planetary boundaries, including one associated with chemical pollution. Diamond et al. concluded that implicit in the concept of a safe operating space for chemical pollution is a finite global assimilative capacity for chemical pollution defined as the ability of an ecosystem to render a substance harmless, that is, to avoid adverse effects. We suggest that measurement and modeling of the fate and transport of toxic compounds that disseminate globally through repeated cycles of atmospheresurface exchange should be incorporated into efforts to identify safe boundaries and integrate those boundaries into systems of governance.