This morning, Swedish Radio reported that the Earth’s planetary boundaries are being crossed again, further and further.
According to the new Planetary Health Check 2026 from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, seven of the nine boundaries have already been breached.
Planetary Health Check 2026
Our planet’s vital signs are flashing red.
7 out of 9 Planetary Boundaries are breached.
We have to act now.Planetary Health Check 2026
The Boundaries
The nine planetary boundaries define the safe environmental limits within which humanity can survive and thrive. According to the Planetary Health Check 2026, seven of them have now been breached.
“Breached” does not necessarily mean irreparable. It means humanity has moved beyond the scientifically estimated safe operating zone and entered conditions where the risk of severe, widespread or irreversible damage increases.
Some damage may be reversible if pressure is reduced quickly enough—like the recovery of the ozone layer after harmful chemicals were phased out. Other changes may take centuries to reverse, while some losses, such as species extinction, are permanent.
So breaching a boundary is not a declaration that all hope is lost. It is a warning that we have left the safe zone and must act before more damage becomes irreversible.
- Climate change — BREACHED
- Biosphere integrity — BREACHED
- Land-system change — BREACHED
- Freshwater change — BREACHED
- Biogeochemical flows — BREACHED
Nitrogen and phosphorus cycles - Novel entities — BREACHED
Plastics, synthetic chemicals and other pollutants - Ocean acidification — BREACHED
- Atmospheric aerosol loading — NOT BREACHED GLOBALLY
- Stratospheric ozone depletion — NOT BREACHED
The ozone layer was severely damaged decades ago, but it is now recovering after countries acted together to phase out the chemicals responsible. It shows that when humanity recognizes a planetary danger and responds collectively, we can actually reverse the damage.
To safeguard the Earth’s resilience and stability, we must bring the planet back into its Planetary Boundaries. These boundaries are scientifically defined guardrails that ensure the Earth’s health. Stay within them, and the Earth stays our dependable home — breach them, and we risk irreversible damage to our very own life support system. Today, seven out of nine boundaries have been transgressed.
– Planetary Health Check 2026
No additional boundary has been crossed since the previous report.
The condition of the planet has simply deteriorated further within the seven we have already breached.
We identified the limits required for our survival.
Then we continued crossing them.
That is the planetary paradox.
Talk and Talk
Humanity has not been silent about the destruction of nature. We have talked about it for decades.
We have published scientific papers explaining what is happening. We have held global summits attended by presidents, ministers, scientists, corporations and environmental organizations. We have negotiated climate agreements, biodiversity agreements and sustainable-development goals.
We have promised to protect forests, reduce emissions, clean the oceans and preserve the planet for our children.
Then the delegates fly home, the corporations return to business and the governments return to pursuing economic growth.
Another forest is cleared. Another oil field is opened. Another mine expands. Another species disappears. More plastic enters the ocean. More carbon enters the atmosphere.
Then we arrange another conference to discuss why the previous conference did not produce the necessary results.
The knowledge is not missing. The warnings are not missing. The goals are not missing.
What is missing is an economic system capable of acting upon them.
The Wrong Machine
Trying to tweak the monetary system to take care of the planet is like trying to to make a 1937 tractor perform like a modern McLaren Formula 1 car.
Engineers could write papers. Governments could establish performance targets. Committees could meet annually to measure progress. New tires could be fitted. The suspension could be adjusted. The engine could be tuned. A spoiler could be attached to the back and racing stripes painted along the sides.
It would still be a tractor.
There is nothing wrong with the tractor for the purpose it was designed to serve. It was created as a vehicle for another age and purpose.
But it was not built to compete in Formula 1.
No number of adjustments will transform its fundamental design into a McLaren racing car.
That is what we are attempting to do with the global monetary system.
We are asking it to optimize the use of every resource, protect the biosphere, restore the planet, eliminate waste, secure humanity’s survival and provide a good life for everyone.
But it was never built for that.
Another Age
The monetary system was developed in a different age for a different purpose.
During the early stages of industrial development, the consequences of expansion were far less visible. The climate still appeared stable. The oceans seemed endless. Forests appeared to stretch beyond the horizon, while the resources beneath the ground seemed practically unlimited.
So the logic was simple.
Increase production. Extract more resources. Create more jobs, more profit and more money.
If one deposit was exhausted, move to the next. If one forest disappeared, there were plenty of others. If waste was dumped into a river or released into the atmosphere, the planet seemed large enough to absorb it.
For a time, this appeared to work.
Industrial production created extraordinary advances, raised living standards for millions and generated forms of abundance that earlier generations could scarcely have imagined. The damage accumulated more slowly and often far away from those receiving the benefits.
But we do not live in that world anymore.
We can now see the atmosphere changing. We can measure the acidification of the oceans, the depletion of freshwater, the destruction of forests and the collapse of wildlife populations. We can detect plastics in the deepest oceans, on the highest mountains and even inside the human body.
Seven planetary boundaries have been crossed.
The assumption of an endless Earth is no longer defensible.
A Matter of Logic
This is not a matter of ideology. It is purely a matter of logic.
A system built to expand on what appeared to be an unlimited planet cannot continue expanding on a planet whose limits are now clearly visible.
We must heed the paradox.
Built for Profit
The monetary system enabled ownership, trade, competition and the accumulation of wealth. It turned land, labour and natural resources into commodities that could be bought and sold. It allowed immense fortunes to be created by those who gained control over resources and production.
Its central measure of success is not ecological stability or human wellbeing.
It is profit.
A business must produce a financial return. Investors expect their capital to grow. Debts must be repaid with interest. Governments depend upon employment, taxation and expanding economic activity. Pension funds depend upon growing markets. Individuals depend upon wages simply to obtain the necessities of life.
Every part of society becomes dependent upon the circulation and multiplication of money.
This creates an economy that cannot simply decide it has produced enough. If production stops growing, investment falls. Businesses fail. People lose their jobs. Debts become harder to repay. Tax revenues decline. Governments panic.
Economic growth is not an optional ambition within this system.
It is a structural requirement.
But endless physical growth cannot take place on a finite planet.
The planet has limits.
The monetary system requires unlimited expansion.
That is the collision at the heart of the planetary paradox.
Successful Destruction
Within this system, nature becomes economically valuable primarily when it can be owned, extracted, transformed and sold.
A forest standing intact regulates climate, stores carbon, circulates water and provides a home for countless species. Most of this does not appear as financial value.
Cut down the forest, sell the timber, clear the land and build on it or grow crops, and the resulting activity appears as economic growth.
Fish swimming freely in the ocean contribute nothing to gross domestic product. Catch them, process them, package them and sell them, and they become economically productive.
Oil beneath the ground is part of the Earth, but of no value just lying there. Extract it, refine it and sell it, and it becomes profit, employment, tax revenue and national income.
A wetland quietly preventing floods adds little to GDP. Drain it, build on it, suffer a flood and then pay companies to repair the damage, and every stage increases GDP.
The living world is destroyed while the economy records success.
This does not happen because every person involved is greedy or malicious. A company that refuses a profitable opportunity may lose to a competitor that accepts it. A government that leaves valuable resources untouched may lose investment, jobs and tax revenue. A worker whose livelihood depends upon extraction cannot simply walk away from it.
Good people are trapped inside destructive incentives.
The control is built into the system rules themselves.
Endless Tweaks
We keep trying to solve this contradiction by modifying the existing vehicle, the existing system.
We introduce carbon prices, environmental taxes, emissions-trading schemes, green investments, corporate pledges and sustainable products. We ask consumers to shop more responsibly and businesses to become more ethical.
Some of these measures can reduce harm a little bit. They may slow the destruction, and every genuine improvement matters.
But they do not change the fundamental purpose of the machine.
Nature must still present a business case. It must be profitable or else be worthless. A forest is protected if someone can finance its protection. Renewable energy expands when it offers an acceptable return. Pollution is reduced when avoiding it becomes cheaper than causing it. A species survives if governments, charities or consumers can raise enough money to save it.
The moment destruction becomes more profitable, the pressure to destroy returns.
No matter how many improvements we make, we are still trying to turn the tractor into a Formula 1 car. We can install new parts, improve its performance and reduce its emissions.
But we cannot expect it to become something its entire structure was never designed to be.
The monetary system can optimize profit.
It cannot optimize the planet.
It can create abundance for a few by restricting access for others. It cannot create relative abundance for everyone, because goods available freely to all cannot continually be sold for profit.
It can reward extraction. It cannot guarantee restoration.
It can calculate what is financially valuable. It cannot comprehend the full value of a living world.
The Real Paradox
We know that humanity must remain within the planetary boundaries.
We know that natural resources are finite.
We know that endless physical growth is impossible.
We know that the climate, oceans, forests, freshwater and biosphere form one interconnected system upon which we all depend.
Yet we continue using an economic system that must expand, extract and sell in order to survive.
Then we act surprised when it crosses the boundaries.
The Purpose of Profit
The problem is not that the monetary system has failed to achieve its purpose of profit. The problem is that we are demanding a purpose from it that it never had.
It was not created to secure the survival of humanity.
It was not created to optimize resources for everyone.
It was not created to preserve the biosphere forever.
It was created to facilitate ownership, trade, competition and profit.
And that is exactly what it continues to do.
A New Purpose
If the machine was built for the wrong task, the answer is not yet another adjustment.
The answer is to build a system designed for the task we actually face, which is human survival and prospering on a thriving planet.
Its central purpose could be stated clearly:
Use humanity’s knowledge, technology and resources to restore the Earth, remain within its planetary boundaries and provide a secure and fulfilling life for every human being.
From that purpose, everything else would follow.
We would restore forests, soils, rivers and oceans because their health would be recognized as essential infrastructure for civilization.
The motive would no longer be profit. It would be need.
The Need Motive
We know that people need food, housing, healthcare, education, communication and meaningful participation in society. We know that humanity needs a stable climate, clean air and water, fertile soil, living oceans and functioning ecosystems.
Knowing what we need would become the motive to provide it.
Such a system would begin by cleaning up what the monetary system has damaged. It would then manage and optimize the Earth’s resources to secure not merely survival, but relative abundance for everyone for generations to come.
Not infinite consumption. Not identical luxury for all.
Relative abundance: enough food, housing, energy, healthcare, education, mobility and opportunity for everyone to live well without destroying the systems that keep us alive.
The Formula 1 System
We need to replace our tractor of a monetary system with a highly tuned Formula 1 car.
Not to compete against anyone else. Not to reach the finish line before another nation, corporation or individual. But to create an economic system capable of keeping pace with the planetary changes we face today.
A system designed to respond quickly, coordinate globally and use our knowledge, technology and resources with precision. A system that does not create even more destruction in its attempt to sustain itself, but restores what has already been damaged and creates the conditions in which nature and humanity can thrive together.
Forever.
The purpose of this new machine would not be to maximize profit. It would be to remain within the planetary boundaries, protect the living world and provide relative abundance for everyone.
That is the Formula 1 car we now need.
With it as our new system we could have a streamlined world that works for everyone.
With the help of AI, I have already explored whether this is physically possible. It is.
We have more than enough resources and energy to provide everyone with a good place to live, nutritious food, transportation and communication while remaining within the planetary boundaries. With modern automation, robotics and intelligent coordination, all of this could be achieved without anyone needing to work very much. Our new Formula 1 system would be designed to accomplish precisely that— by optimizing all resources for humanity and the living planet.
Changing Tracks
But is it possible?
Or are we already doomed?
Is the monetary system like a runaway train—carrying all of humanity towards the edge, with too much speed and momentum to be stopped?
Maybe so.
But even a train with enormous momentum can change tracks. It does not have to stop instantly. It can be redirected towards a different destination.
The question is whether we can make the decision fast enough.
We Did It
In the novel Waking Up: A Journey Towards a New Dawn for Humanity, humanity has done exactly that. It managed to change direction before it was too late.
And then Ben wakes up.
The bewildered billionaire Benjamin Michaels awakens in this new world after one hundred years of cryonic preservation and discovers a civilization that no longer revolves around money, ownership and profit. Through him, you are invited to experience what became possible when humanity finally replaced its obsolete economic machine with one designed for life.
The future world changed tracks in time.
Perhaps we still can.
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