Earth exceeds safe limits: First Planetary Health Check issues red alert
PBScience is a new initiative led by Professor Johan Rockström and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), supported by the Planetary Guardians and other partners,
The launch of the Planetary Health Check is based on the publication of the inaugural Planetary Health Check Report, which represents a crucial step in collective efforts to understand and protect the stability and resilience of Earth. The report will be published annually in recognition of the importance of timely updates on Earth’s health and marking a significant advancement in the regularity of this insight for stakeholders globally.
The Global Commons Alliance Earth HQ, in partnership with PIK and the Planetary Guardians, helped to build and host the online presence of the Planetary Health Check.
The Planetary Health Check report illustrates how the boundary processes relate to each other as well as with tipping points. Typically, environmental challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution have been addressed separately but these issues are interconnected and collectively impact our planet’s health, as well as human health. Moreover, breaching safe planetary levels for these boundaries causes feedback that amplifies the impacts on people and can push Earth closer to tipping points.
Planetary Boundaries such as climate change, change in biosphere integrity and ocean acidification are defined for the nine critical Earth system processes that regulate life support systems on Earth. They outline a safe operating space within which humanity can thrive while keeping the planet stable and resilient. Once a boundary is breached, the risk of permanently damaging Earth’s life support functions increases as does the probability of crossing tipping points that cause irreversible changes. If multiple boundaries are breached, risks sharply increase.
The Planetary Health Check shows that these critical Earth’s systems functions are at risk, with six of nine Planetary Boundaries breached and the imminent breach of a seventh, and a clear trend towards further transgression. While a boundary transgression is not equivalent to drastic changes happening overnight, they mark entering territory of rising risk.
“The Planetary Health Check is a major leap forward in our collective mission to understand and protect our planet. We have known for some time that we are weakening the planet’s resilience. This scientific update shows that, irrespective of what scale we operate on, all actions need to consider impacts at the planetary scale. Stewardship of the planet is necessary in all sectors of the economy and in societies, for security, prosperity and equity. By quantifying the boundaries for a healthy planet, we provide policy, economics and business with the tools needed to steer away from unmanageable risks, "said Johan Rockström, PIK Director, Co-Lead of PBScience and Pioneer of the Planetary Boundaries Framework.
The overall diagnostic is that the patient, Planet Earth, is in critical condition. With seven of the nine Planetary Boundaries processes showing increasing transgression we will soon see the majority of them in the high-risk zone.
The assessment furthermore shows that the trend for seven of the nine planetary boundaries is towards increased breaching, in many cases a movement deeper into the high-risk zone, providing strong support for a Red Alert warning.
The Planetary Health Check will bring together the planetary boundaries’ science with indigenous knowledge to find solutions to help bring us back into the safe operating space for humanity. Indigenous Peoples from around the world have had a kinship with the planet for millennia. Their stewardship of the Earth’s resources, and knowledge of how to live in harmony with the planet, is imperative for the creation of holistic solutions to humanity’s impact on planetary health.
Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim, Chair of the Planetary Guardians and an expert in the adaptation and mitigation of indigenous peoples to climate change, added: “For centuries, Indigenous Peoples have lived in harmony with the land, learning how to use the environment to support themselves and to replenish what is taken for the overall health of Earth. We are killing ourselves with overdoses of chemicals, destruction of nature, skyrocketing temperatures, and increasing pollution. As industry has accelerated, Indigenous Peoples have seen their homes degraded and destroyed. It is imperative that this decline is reversed. With the Planetary Health Check, we can begin to illuminate this path while also sharing the deep knowledge of Indigenous Peoples when it comes to identifying solutions. We can live a legacy of an even better world for future generations to thrive in partnership with Earth.”
The Planetary Health Check gives a unique, holistic view of the planet’s health, serving as a compass for decision making for nations, companies, multilaterals, and all citizens. It will evolve with the support of a range of partners into a “mission-control centre” for Earth using the latest satellite data, AI, Indigenous Peoples wisdom, and the latest modern science.
Ultimately, the Planetary Health Check will enable everyone to urgently act and to build their five-year plans to help humanity change course to get back to a safe operating space.