Prof. Dr. Manfred Lenzen 

Human economic activities are increasingly conflicting with Earth’s environment. Humans are disturbing environmental cycles to an unprecedented extent. There is not a single country that meets the basic needs of its citizens at a globally sustainable level of resource use. At the same time, we observe increasing geopolitical fragmentation, conflict, and risk. Consequently, global collaboration on vital environmental problems such as climate change, biodiversity decline, agricultural productivity loss, and pollutant loads is being disrupted. Increasing military spending is diverting funds from critical environmental solutions such as emissions mitigation, forest conservation, and food security. We need to think in terms of planetary survival, but our decision-makers think in terms of planetary dominance. We therefore pose the question: How do current trends of geopolitical fragmentation derail vital efforts to save the Earth? More specifically, how would emissions mitigation, food security, and biodiversity conservation be affected under disrupted international trade and collaboration? In other words: Can we stay within planetary boundaries in a fragmented world?