The findings show that the updated planetary boundary for freshwater change was surpassed by the mid-twentieth century.
This is the first time that global water cycle change has been assessed over such a long timescale with an appropriate reference baseline.
Human activity has pushed the Earth’s freshwater resources far beyond the stable conditions that prevailed before industrialisation, a study has found. The findings show the updated planetary boundary for freshwater change was surpassed by the mid-20th century. Exceptional conditions are now more frequent and widespread, demonstrating how human actions have changed the state of the global freshwater cycle.