Humanity has raced past four of the boundaries keeping it hospitable to life, and we're inching close to the remaining five, an Earth resilience strategist has found.

In a paper published in Science in January 2015, Johan Rockström argues that we've already screwed up with regards to climate change, extinction of species, addition of phosphorus and nitrogen to the world's ecosystems and deforestation.

We are well within the boundaries for ocean acidification and freshwater use meanwhile, but cutting it fine with regards to emission of poisonous aerosols and stratospheric ozone depletion.

"The planet has been our best friend by buffering our actions and showing its resilience," Rockström said. "But for the first time ever, we might shift the planet from friend to foe."

This table by Ted shows where we're at according to his scale:

Rockström came up with the boundaries in 2007, and since then the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has risen to around 400 parts per million (the 'safe' boundary being 350 parts per million), risking high temperatures and sea levels, droughts and floods and other catastrophic climate problems.

The research echoes a recent debate over whether the Earth has moved from the Holocene epoch to a new one scientists are calling the Anthropocene, named after the substantial effect mankind has had on the Earth's crust.

It's not all doom and gloom though.

"Ours is a positive, not a doomsday, message," Rockström insisted.

In pictures: Biggest threats to the rainforests Show all 10 1 /10 In pictures: Biggest threats to the rainforests In pictures: Biggest threats to the rainforests Borneo Destruction of the rainforest, deforestation in Borneo In pictures: Biggest threats to the rainforests Brazil Aerial view af an area devastated by clandestine gold mining in the Jamanxim National Forest, state of Para. With 1,3 million hectares, the Jamanxim National Forest is a microsm that replicates what happens in the Amazon, where thousands of hectares of land are prey of illegal woodcutters, stock breeders and gold miners In pictures: Biggest threats to the rainforests Amazon rainforest Intensive logging makes rainforest fires more likely as the Earth warms Rex In pictures: Biggest threats to the rainforests Peru Miners known as "Maraqueros" ready a rustic type of hydraulic jet known locally as a "Chupadera," after hauling the device about 16-meters deep into a crater at a gold mine process in La Pampa in Peru's Madre de Dios region. A new threat now looms for the estimated 20,000 wildcat miners who toil in huge scar of denuded rainforest known as La Pampa In pictures: Biggest threats to the rainforests Peru A rope hangs around the trunk of a tree at a illegal gold mining process in La Pampa in Peru's Madre de Dios region. An estimated 20,000 miners toil in this malarial expanse of denuded rainforest known as La Pampa In pictures: Biggest threats to the rainforests Amazon rainforest The extent of the environmental damage in the Amazon rainforest afp/getty images In pictures: Biggest threats to the rainforests Indonesia Destruction remains from tropical rainforest in Kuala Cenaku in Riau Province, Sumatra. Norway entered a partnership with Indonesia to support Indonesia's efforts to reduce emissions from deforestation and degradation of forests and peat lands. The business of pulp, palm oil and wood are causing the deforestation of Sumatra, the largest island owned by Indonesia, and is contributing global climate change to the extinction of many of the world's rare species In pictures: Biggest threats to the rainforests Malaysia An area that has been cleared of rainforest to make way for a palm oil plantation in Sabah, Malaysia CORBIS In pictures: Biggest threats to the rainforests Indonesia Regenerated palm oil trees are seen growing on the site of destroyed tropical rainforest in Kuala Cenaku GETTY IMAGES In pictures: Biggest threats to the rainforests Brazil Brazil launched the Amazon Fund, aimed at protecting the rainforest so vital to the world's climate, and at combating climate change. In December 2008 Brazil launched a national climate change plan which proposed to cut the country's deforestation rate in half by 2018 Getty Images

He is confident that we can step back within some of the boundaries, for example through slashing carbon emissions and boosting agricultural yields in Africa to soothe deforestation and biodiversity loss.