If Earth were a hospital patient, it would likely be lying in the intensive care unit that's the overall message from the new Planet Health Check 2025 report published by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). "Right now, many parameters are outside the normal range, meaning they are classified as poor, and the patient Earth is in danger,"
All is not lost, Simon Stiell, the UN's climate chief, told the Guardian last week. But the latest planetary health check from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research is a brutal reminder of how close the Earth is being pushed beyond repair. Seven of the nine planetary boundaries are now breached, with ocean acidification added to the danger list. Yet the world has proved that cooperation works: the ozone layer is healing, air pollution controls are working.