Lindsay Gifford
Biographic Data
| ID | 742500 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Lindsay Gifford |
| GIVEN NAMES | Lindsay |
| FAMILY NAME | Gifford |
| SIGNATURE | GIFFORD L |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Arizona |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-8130-4684 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 12 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 29 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 12 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2008 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Making carbon offset not just a pipe dream
Thresholds of significant harm at global level
The planetary boundary framework proposes ‘safe’ boundaries, but these boundaries are not necessarily ‘just’. Hence, we ask: How has the Earth Commission defined just boundaries building on the concept of minimizing significant harm and how many people are currently exposed to harm above the safe and just threshold? We document the work of the Earth Commission to address these questions using our Earth System Justice framework. We conclude that: …
Governing for a safe and just future with science-based targets
This paper reflects on the work of the Earth Commission and the Global Commons Alliance to include climate and environmental justice in establishing biophysical targets to stabilize the Earth system. Targets include those for global temperature (e.g. 1.5°C), biodiversity (e.g. % protected or natural land), surface and groundwater and nutrient pollution (e.g. phosphorus load). We discuss whether and how to define Earth system justice in relation t…
Defining Climate Finance Justice
Earth system boundaries and Earth system justice
The literature on planetary and Earth system boundaries calls on humans to live within those boundaries. Sharing such limited ecospace raises questions of justice. Global environmental assessments and scholarship are increasingly paying attention to justice issues, yet inadequately define how to share the limited ecospace. Against this background we ask: how can global environmental assessments’ concerns for justice be enhanced through an Earth s…
Safe and just Earth system boundaries
The stability and resilience of the Earth system and human well-being are inseparably linked 1–3 , yet their interdependencies are generally under-recognized; consequently, they are often treated independently 4,5 . Here, we use modelling and literature assessment to quantify safe and just Earth system boundaries (ESBs) for climate, the biosphere, water and nutrient cycles, and aerosols at global and subglobal scales. We propose ESBs for maintain…
Earth system justice needed to identify and live within Earth system boundaries
The AAG’s Emissions Problem
Professional organizations like the American Association of Geographers (AAG) face a conundrum and an ethical dilemma: Do we continue to drive and fly around the country, and world, to share our research—much of it examining topics related to resource extraction, uneven development, crises of capitalism, justice, and human rights—while the very action of travel contributes to global climate change and exacerbates many of the problems we explore i…
Achieving a nature- and people-positive future
Despite decades of increasing investment in conservation, we have not succeeded in ''bending the curve'' of biodiversity decline. Efforts to meet new targets and goals for the next three decades risk repeating this outcome due to three factors: neglect of increasing drivers of decline; unrealistic expectations and time frames of biodiversity recovery; and insufficient attention to justice within and between generations and across countries. Our E…
Impacts of meeting minimum access on critical earth systems amidst the Great Inequality
The Sustainable Development Goals aim to improve access to resources and services, reduce environmental degradation, eradicate poverty and reduce inequality. However, the magnitude of the environmental burden that would arise from meeting the needs of the poorest is under debate—especially when compared to much larger burdens from the rich. We show that the ‘Great Acceleration’ of human impacts was characterized by a ‘Great Inequality’ in using a…
Reconciling safe planetary targets and planetary justice
As human activity threatens to make the planet unsafe for humanity and other life forms, scholars are identifying planetary targets set at a safe distance from biophysical thresholds beyond which critical Earth systems may collapse. Yet despite the profound implications that both meeting and transgressing such targets may have for human wellbeing, including the potential for negative trade-offs, there is limited social science analysis that syste…
From Catcalls to Kidnapping
Impacts of meeting minimum access on critical earth systems amidst the Great Inequality
The Sustainable Development Goals aim to improve access to resources and services, reduce environmental degradation, eradicate poverty and reduce inequality. However, the magnitude of the environmental burden that would arise from meeting the needs of the poorest is under debate—especially when compared to much larger burdens from the rich. We show that the ‘Great Acceleration’ of human impacts was characterized by a ‘Great Inequality’ in using a…
Earth system justice needed to identify and live within Earth system boundaries
Reconciling safe planetary targets and planetary justice
As human activity threatens to make the planet unsafe for humanity and other life forms, scholars are identifying planetary targets set at a safe distance from biophysical thresholds beyond which critical Earth systems may collapse. Yet despite the profound implications that both meeting and transgressing such targets may have for human wellbeing, including the potential for negative trade-offs, there is limited social science analysis that syste…
From Catcalls to Kidnapping
Earth system boundaries and Earth system justice
The literature on planetary and Earth system boundaries calls on humans to live within those boundaries. Sharing such limited ecospace raises questions of justice. Global environmental assessments and scholarship are increasingly paying attention to justice issues, yet inadequately define how to share the limited ecospace. Against this background we ask: how can global environmental assessments’ concerns for justice be enhanced through an Earth s…
From Catcalls to Kidnapping
Reconciling safe planetary targets and planetary justice
As human activity threatens to make the planet unsafe for humanity and other life forms, scholars are identifying planetary targets set at a safe distance from biophysical thresholds beyond which critical Earth systems may collapse. Yet despite the profound implications that both meeting and transgressing such targets may have for human wellbeing, including the potential for negative trade-offs, there is limited social science analysis that syste…
The AAG’s Emissions Problem
Professional organizations like the American Association of Geographers (AAG) face a conundrum and an ethical dilemma: Do we continue to drive and fly around the country, and world, to share our research—much of it examining topics related to resource extraction, uneven development, crises of capitalism, justice, and human rights—while the very action of travel contributes to global climate change and exacerbates many of the problems we explore i…
Achieving a nature- and people-positive future
Despite decades of increasing investment in conservation, we have not succeeded in ''bending the curve'' of biodiversity decline. Efforts to meet new targets and goals for the next three decades risk repeating this outcome due to three factors: neglect of increasing drivers of decline; unrealistic expectations and time frames of biodiversity recovery; and insufficient attention to justice within and between generations and across countries. Our E…
Impacts of meeting minimum access on critical earth systems amidst the Great Inequality
The Sustainable Development Goals aim to improve access to resources and services, reduce environmental degradation, eradicate poverty and reduce inequality. However, the magnitude of the environmental burden that would arise from meeting the needs of the poorest is under debate—especially when compared to much larger burdens from the rich. We show that the ‘Great Acceleration’ of human impacts was characterized by a ‘Great Inequality’ in using a…
Safe and just Earth system boundaries
The stability and resilience of the Earth system and human well-being are inseparably linked 1–3 , yet their interdependencies are generally under-recognized; consequently, they are often treated independently 4,5 . Here, we use modelling and literature assessment to quantify safe and just Earth system boundaries (ESBs) for climate, the biosphere, water and nutrient cycles, and aerosols at global and subglobal scales. We propose ESBs for maintain…
Earth system justice needed to identify and live within Earth system boundaries
Governing for a safe and just future with science-based targets
This paper reflects on the work of the Earth Commission and the Global Commons Alliance to include climate and environmental justice in establishing biophysical targets to stabilize the Earth system. Targets include those for global temperature (e.g. 1.5°C), biodiversity (e.g. % protected or natural land), surface and groundwater and nutrient pollution (e.g. phosphorus load). We discuss whether and how to define Earth system justice in relation t…
Defining Climate Finance Justice
Earth system boundaries and Earth system justice
The literature on planetary and Earth system boundaries calls on humans to live within those boundaries. Sharing such limited ecospace raises questions of justice. Global environmental assessments and scholarship are increasingly paying attention to justice issues, yet inadequately define how to share the limited ecospace. Against this background we ask: how can global environmental assessments’ concerns for justice be enhanced through an Earth s…
Thresholds of significant harm at global level
The planetary boundary framework proposes ‘safe’ boundaries, but these boundaries are not necessarily ‘just’. Hence, we ask: How has the Earth Commission defined just boundaries building on the concept of minimizing significant harm and how many people are currently exposed to harm above the safe and just threshold? We document the work of the Earth Commission to address these questions using our Earth System Justice framework. We conclude that: …
Making carbon offset not just a pipe dream
Political science (9 works) · Ecology (6 works) · Economics (6 works) · Law (6 works) · Sociology (6 works) · Environmental ethics (5 works) · Environmental resource management (5 works) · Sustainability and Climate Change Governance (5 works) · Biology (4 works) · Business (4 works)