We are then likely caught in the need for geo - engineering for the foreseeable future, and if we stop because of a decline in our civilization (dark age) then we face a radically
different planetary environment that could pound us down further.
The failure to account for
different environments points to the main problem with the
planetary boundaries framework: it only measures environmental change as negative — as progression toward supposed biophysical boundaries — and never as positive, either for humans (e.g., more food) or
environments (e.g., higher yields resulting in less deforestation).