The work behind the identification of the nine planetary boundaries builds on a rich tradition of intellectual thought and writing within ecological economics and earth systems science. Furthermore, it rests on three loosely related branches of scientific inquiry:

The first is on the scale of human action in relation to the capacity of the earth to sustain it.

The second is the work on understanding essential earth system processes, including human actions.

The third is resilience thinking linked to complex systems dynamics, emphasizing multiple basins of attraction and thresholds effects.