The normative component of the framework is that human societies have been able to thrive under the comparatively stable climatic and ecological conditions of the Holocene. According to the framework, 'transgressing one or more planetary boundaries may be deleterious or even catastrophic due to the risk of crossing thresholds that will trigger non-linear, abrupt environmental change within continental-scale to planetary-scale systems.' The framework is based on scientific evidence that human actions, especially those of industrialized societies since the Industrial Revolution, have become the main driver of global environmental change. Crossing a planetary boundary comes at the risk of abrupt environmental change. This would mean the Earth system would leave the period of stability of the Holocene, in which human society developed. Beyond these limits, the environment may not be able to self-regulate anymore.

Planetary boundaries are a framework to describe limits to the impacts of human activities on the Earth system. Planetary boundaries diagram orange sections indicate 'overshoot' of boundaries, green sections indicate a 'safe' state within the boundaries (data for November 2022). Not to be confused with Planetary boundary layer.

Fishing planet map levels