Leading climate scientist Johan Rockström (Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research) shows how deeply climate change and biodiversity loss are connected – requiring urgent action on both issues to avoid further damage to the planet.
For the first time in history, Rockström says, scientists are forced to ask: “Are we at risk of destabilizing the entire Earth system?”
Human-caused climate change has already led to global warming of 1.2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial times, Rockström notes.
“We’re following a pathway taking us to 2.7 degrees Celsius within the range of your grandchildren. This is a place we haven’t been in for the past 3 million years.”
Until now, the planet has shown remarkable “resilience to buffer our stress to the system”, Rockström says.
Healthy ecosystems, like tropical rainforests, are essential to mitigating the effects of climate change, he warns. Protecting up to 50% of nature is necessary to maintain the planet’s buffering capacity, and the Paris climate goals cannot be met without protecting nature as well, Rockström makes clear.
“If we do not be stewards of nature”, says, “we will have a destabilization of the planet.”
Watch the video to get more insights about climate tipping points, the planetary boundaries framework, and how sustainable economic development is related to prosperity on a stable and resilient planet.
For more information about the concept of Planetary Boundaries, which Rockström pioneered, please take a look at the Planetary Health Check initiative. The first annual report was released shortly after DLD Nature in September 2024.
