Seven of Nine Planetary Boundaries Breached at Record Levels, Scientists Warn

The planetary health check process was established in 2009, and the nine boundaries help define a “safe operating space for humanity.” The seven indicators now in the danger zone are climate change, change in biosphere integrity, land system change, freshwater change, modification of biogeochemical flows, introduction of novel entities and, for the first time last year, ocean acidification. Only stratospheric ozone depletion and atmospheric aerosol loading have shown improvement over the last decade, although researchers warn that atmospheric aerosols, which can form air pollution, remain a problem in several regions of the world.

The analysis was conducted by a coalition of 60 scientists under the auspices of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. Boris Sakschewski, lead author of the report, said the consequences of breaching the boundaries are “becoming increasingly clear all around us.”

“The diagnosis is unambiguous – pressure is rising across every planetary boundary already outside the safe operating space,” Sakschewski said. “It means that the risk of large-scale, persistent and potentially irreversible change is increasing, while our margin for error in tackling these problems is shrinking.”

Johan Rockström, a climate scientist and report co-author, said there is little time to reverse the situation but that humanity still possesses the knowledge and capacity to do so. “Accelerating action to return to the safe operating space across all planetary boundaries is essential to protect lives and livelihoods, and to deliver on the promise of shared future prosperity,” he said.

The assessment examined the latest scientific data on the areas that provide a safe operating space for humanity. Human civilization has developed over the past 10,000 years because of a relatively stable climate and natural resources that sustainably provide food, shelter and a safe living environment, the report notes. Those conditions are being badly warped by the release of huge amounts of planet-heating pollution from the burning of fossil fuels and the mass disposal of other pollution such as plastic into the environment. Forests, wetlands and other habitats are being torn apart, fragmented and flattened to make way for agriculture and urban areas, imperiling animal species and the natural systems upon which humans depend.

The report warns that the ability of landscapes and bodies of water to cope with this and act as a buffer to the worsening climate crisis is “weakening and may be significantly overestimated.” While forests and oceans have absorbed a vast amount of the carbon dioxide emitted by humans, there are signs that these natural systems are faltering. For example, the report states there is a chance that the Amazon rainforest, a huge carbon store, could reach a tipping point where it becomes a savannah, which would have “serious implications for climate stability, food and water security, and human health around the world.”

The report comes after a series of extreme events around the world in the past year that scientists say have been made far more likely by the upending of the environment. Huge floods hit Pakistan last year, while this year has seen record heat and wildfires across Europe, the hottest ever summer in the US, and a disastrous flood on the Tibet-Nepal border. The oceans, which are absorbing much of the extra generated heat, have hit new temperature records.

“These are not separate emergencies; the planet is telling us, in every region at once, that it is out of balance,” said Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim, chair of Planetary Guardians, a coalition of scientists, business leaders and activists. “I hear this same story wherever I go, whether from a pastoralist watching the rains fail season after season or a coastal community watching the sea rise. The 2026 planetary health check puts data behind what communities on the frontlines already know from living it. We do not have the luxury of treating these as separate crises any longer.”

The report was released on Monday shortly after the start of Climate Week, a major gathering of politicians, business leaders and activists in New York City that leads up to the UN general assembly. Members of the Planetary Guardians, including former Irish president Mary Robinson, Nobel laureate and former Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos, and oceanographer Sylvia Earle, attended the launch. They are part of more than 100,000 attenders expected at Climate Week.