A new report warns that Earth's life support systems are under severe strain, with seven of nine planetary boundaries already breached. Scientists behind the assessment compare the planet's condition to a patient needing urgent intensive care.
The Planetary Health Check 2026, authored by more than 60 scientists, is a stark warning about the pressure on Earth's vital systems, while insisting there is still a chance to reverse the damage if significant environmental action is taken soon.
Seven boundaries crossed
Climate change and ocean acidification are among the boundaries that have been crossed, while others include damage to the Amazon rainforest and the impact of deep-sea mining and trawling on the seafloor.
Niklas Kitzmann, lead editor of the report, told Live Science: "If you had a patient with a blood test that looks like this, you would send them to the ICU right away."
Running out of time
The researchers say recovery is not impossible, and there remains an opportunity to reverse damage, provided substantial environmental measures are taken promptly.
Kitzmann said: "We still have a window to turn this around, but we do have to start bending the curves on emissions and on nature degradation within the next few years. We're rapidly running out of time."
Among the issues highlighted are extreme weather events, the harm done by forever chemicals, and the rising loss of species.
The seven breached planetary boundaries are ocean acidity levels, freshwater change, land system change, climate change, modification of biogeochemical flows, introduction of novel entities, and change in biosphere integrity. The two remaining boundaries - stratospheric ozone depletion and atmospheric aerosol loading - remain at safe levels.
Avoiding catastrophe
Signs of global trouble can already be seen, according to experts, with severe heatwaves, the loss of glaciers at the poles, and increasingly common coral bleaching.
Hope of avoiding catastrophe comes in the form of the renewable energy transition, fuelled by falling costs of solar technology, rising public awareness, and international treaties that protect land and oceans.
"It's not enough yet, it's not sufficient, but we shouldn't think that this is a completely unsolvable problem," Kitzmann said. "It is very much in the process of being solved, and we just need to step on the accelerator right now and make sure that these solutions that we have get implemented as quickly as we possibly can."
