Initiated in 2024, the Planetary Health Check is a comprehensive, science-based global initiative dedicated to measuring and maintaining Earth systems critical to life as we know it. These annual reports were created to provide a regular, comprehensive assessment of the state of our world, utilizing the most current planetary boundaries science — monitoring changes, gauging risks, identifying urgent actions needed, developing solutions and determining progress in maintaining a “safe operating space for humanity.” The just-published 2025 assessment finds that seven out of the nine critical planetary boundaries (PBs) have been breached: climate change, change in biosphere integrity, land system change, freshwater change, modification of biogeochemical flows, the introduction of novel entities, and now, ocean acidification. All of these Earth system boundary transgressions show escalating trends, threatening further deterioration and destabilization of planetary health in the near future. Just two PBs remain within the safe operating space: increase in atmospheric aerosol loading (with an improving global trend) and stratospheric ozone depletion (currently stable). Earth System scientist Johan Rockström, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) in Germany, spoke to Mongabay on the occasion of the launch of the Planetary Health Check 2025 report, which announces the transgression of the ocean acidification boundary — the seventh Earth system boundary threshold crossed, putting the safe operating space for humanity at grave risk. PIK’s director is co-author of the 2025 report and author of the book and video documentary Breaking Boundaries: The Science of Our Planet (2021), which explains the planetary…This article was originally published on Mongabay

When Fredy Yavinape was a young child, he didn’t know the biological concept of an “umbrella species.” These are species that require large areas of undisturbed habitat to survive, which is why they serve as an indicator of the conservation status of the entire ecosystem. Now, at 48 years old, Yavinape knows what they are. He’s spent more than a decade collecting samples and documenting the daily events that occur in the vast territory of lagoons and rivers where he resides: Estrella Fluvial del Inírida, or EFI. This is an important complex of wetlands in eastern Colombia, formed by the confluence of the Inírida, Guaviare and Atabapo rivers, where the Amazon Rainforest meets the flood-prone savannas of the Orinoquía. “Every time anyone left, my father said to us, ‘Watch out for Grandpa; he must be around here. Don’t bother him. He could be fishing or hunting — you have to respect him,’” Yavinape says. The “grandpa” his father was referring to was a jaguar, said to be the ancestor of the Curripaco Indigenous people. Yavinape even has the big cat’s in his surname: In his native language, “Yavinape” means “jaguar’s arm.” “He’s always watching, wherever a jaguar is. That means that there’s food there,” he says. The last time he encountered one, he says, was in December 2024, during his monitoring work through the Ramsar board, of which Yavinape is president. The Ramsar board is a governing entity established by local communities and Indigenous peoples in the area following the…This article was originally published on Mongabay

Thwaites Glacier rises above the Amundsen Sea in the Antarctic, a towering white cliff abutting cerulean waters. Roughly the size of Great Britain and spanning 120 kilometers (80 miles) across, Thwaites — part of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet — may seem all but invincible. But among scientists, it’s known as the “Doomsday Glacier” for its potential to raise global sea levels. Now, as greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, some polar researchers are investigating a radical geoengineering plan to install seabed curtains that could protect Thwaites from melting down. Thwaites Glacier is rapidly shedding ice as the world warms from climate change, driven by the burning of fossil fuels. Thwaites is losing about 50 billion metric tons of ice every year, contributing to about 4% of present-day sea-level rise worldwide. But if Thwaites were to melt down entirely, it could raise the average global sea level by more than 0.6 meters (2 feet) over the next few centuries. This would inundate coastal cities around the world and force hundreds of millions of people to migrate. Some scientists think it could be even worse. Thwaites may act as a natural dam for the rest of ice contained within West Antarctica. If it collapses, it could destabilize other glaciers, potentially pushing global sea level rise to as high as 3 m (10 ft). In a 2024 briefing, the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration, a group of polar scientists closely studying the glacier’s fate, said a worst-case meltdown scenario can’t be ruled out,…This article was originally published on Mongabay