In 2009, a team, led by the climate scientist Prof Johan Rockström, identified nine natural processes that regulate Earth’s biosphere and keep it stable. These include climate change, biosphere integrity, land-system change, freshwater change, biogeochemical flows, novel entities, ocean acidification, stratospheric ozone depletion and aerosol loading. For each of these processes the team defined the safe boundaries – thresholds beyond which environmental damage may become irreversible.
Seven of the nine planetary boundaries have now been breached, signaling that humanity is destabilizing Earth’s critical life-support systems.
The consequences are already visible: extreme weather events are intensifying, ecosystems are collapsing, and new threats to public health are emerging.
Planetary health has emerged as the scientific discipline connecting these challenges, revealing how deeply human wellbeing depends on the stability of natural systems.
A STOA workshop brought together in January 2026 leading planetary health scientists and European policymakers to explore how this evolving discipline can inform transformative policy actions.
Professor Johan Rockström, director at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, who participated in the STOA event calls in an interview with the ESMH for a planetary boundaries framework to guide policy action. Watch the full interview.
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Useful link:
• STOA event on planetary health
• Video: Planetary health: a critical discipline for the future