The 2026 Planetary Health Check is out. This is Johan Rockstrom’s “Planetary Boundaries” framework. 7 of 9 indicators have moved beyond the “safe operating space”, and most or all are continuing to move in the wrong direction, often in an accelerating fashion. This is scientists trying to be very empirical and focus on indicators that are measurable. It leaves me hungry for a model that uses these variables to explain how the system as a whole is functioning. And they do give a qualitative nod to interconnections and system understanding. But overall, it is a nice compilation of recent scientific evidence in one place, combining the familiar (more or less) evidence on carbon concentrations and emissions with less familiar evidence on biodiversity and habitat destruction, the pipeline from nitrogen and phosphorus extraction to water pollution, and land use.

I could spend weeks or months drilling in to the references, but I have children who apparently think I am running a bed and breakfast (i.e., they are out of bed and asking for breakfast), so the part of the day where I have some control over how I spend my time is now over, and if you want to extract some interesting points from this report you will have to do it yourself.