A major 2026 assessment by the Potsdam Institute finds Earth exceeding seven of nine planetary boundaries, intensifying risks to climate, biodiversity, water and oceans. High-risk areas include climate change, biosphere integrity, biogeochemical flows and novel entities; land-system change, freshwater change and ocean acidification are worsening. Scientists warn cascading, potentially irreversible impacts across interlinked systems and urge accelerated policy and scientific action to restore safe limits.
