Moderate
Eat less red meat
Food is ~26% of global emissions, and beef is the single most carbon-intensive food. Shifting to a plant-rich diet can cut your food footprint by up to ~50%.
The only home we’ve ever known
Our pale blue dot is dying,
and the data shows our fingerprints all over it.
Make people aware of how we are contributing to the death of our beautiful pale blue dot.
Planetary vital signs · live
- +1.19°Chotter than the mid-20th century
- 427 ppmatmospheric CO₂
- +23ocean heat (×10²² J) absorbed
- +227 mmhigher seas since 1880
- 4.8 M km²Arctic summer sea ice left
- −73%wild animal populations since 1970
- 80 µg/m³worst-air PM2.5 (Bangladesh)
Carl Sagan · 1994
A mote of dust, suspended in a sunbeam
Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. … There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.
In 1990, Voyager 1 turned back and photographed Earth from 6 billion kilometres away. It is a single, faint pixel. Everything below this page is the story of what we are doing to it.
The state of our planet
21 of 29 vital signs we track are getting worse.
Across every cited series on this page — climate, oceans and ice, life, air and waste — we tallied which way each is actually trending. Only 4 are heading the right way. The rest is the planet's chart, and most of the lines are red.
21/29
vital signs getting worse
21 getting worse 4 improving — renewables, electric cars, protected land 4 roughly stable
Each dot is one real, cited series, classified by the direction of its recent trend. Two noisy or paradoxical metrics (total wildfire area, the annual forest-loss rate) are shown on the site but left out of this tally — see the methodology.
- Global temperature anomaly
- Atmospheric CO₂
- Atmospheric methane
- Atmospheric nitrous oxide
- Global fossil CO₂ emissions
- Greenhouse gases (fossil & industry)
- CO₂ emissions per person
- Fossil fuel production
- Global mean sea level
- Ocean heat content (0–700 m)
- Sea surface temperature
- Arctic sea ice (September)
- Antarctic sea ice (minimum)
- Greenland ice sheet mass
- Antarctica ice sheet mass
- Ocean acidification (surface pH)
- Global plastic production
- Global forest area
- Living Planet Index
- Red List Index (extinction risk)
- Overexploited fish stocks
- Material footprint per person
- Fertilizer use
- Freshwater use
- Ozone-depleting substances
- Protected land
- Average PM2.5 exposure
- Renewable electricity share
- Electric car sales share
Climate
A warming world, in our own hand
The curves tell the story: we burn carbon, the air thickens with CO₂ and methane, and the planet heats. They move together because they are the same story — ours.
Global temperature anomaly
The planet is running a fever it has never had in recorded history.
1.19°C
latest · 2025
Dashed: projected to 1.32 °C by 2030 if the recent trend holds (not a forecast).
1880
-0.18 °C
change since
+761%
Atmospheric CO₂
CO₂ is higher than at any point in at least 800,000 years — and still climbing.
427ppm
latest · 2025
Dashed: projected to 440 ppm by 2030 if the recent trend holds (not a forecast).
1959
316 ppm
change since
+35%
Atmospheric methane
Methane — ~80× more warming than CO₂ over 20 years — is climbing fast.
1936ppb
latest · 2025
Dashed: projected to 1992 ppb by 2030 if the recent trend holds (not a forecast).
1984
1645 ppb
change since
+18%
Atmospheric nitrous oxide
Nitrous oxide — ~270× the warming of CO₂ — keeps climbing, largely from fertiliser.
338.9ppb
latest · 2025
Dashed: projected to 344.1 ppb by 2030 if the recent trend holds (not a forecast).
2001
316.4 ppb
change since
+7%
Global fossil CO₂ emissions
We still pump ~38 billion tonnes of CO₂ into the air every single year.
38.6Gt
latest · 2024
Dashed: projected to 39.4 Gt by 2029 if the recent trend holds (not a forecast).
1750
0.0 Gt
change since
+414674%
Greenhouse gases (fossil & industry)
All warming gases from fossil fuels and industry keep climbing — over 43 Gt CO₂e a year.
43.7Gt CO₂e
latest · 2024
Dashed: projected to 45.1 Gt CO₂e by 2029 if the recent trend holds (not a forecast).
1850
0.7 Gt CO₂e
change since
+6306%
Global tree cover loss
Every year the world loses an area of trees larger than England.
17.7M ha
latest · 2024
Dashed: projected to 17.3 M ha by 2029 if the recent trend holds (not a forecast).
2001
13.3 M ha
change since
+33%
The wildfire paradox
Global area burned per year, all land cover.
A falling line that is not good news.
The total area burned worldwide is trending down — but most of it is African savanna and grassland, much of it managed or cleared for farming, and that has shrunk. What is climbing is the part that matters for the climate: forest and boreal fires, their intensity, and the carbon they release. So a falling line here hides a worsening fire problem, not a solved one.
Oceans & Ice
Rising seas, vanishing ice, souring water
As the planet warms, ice melts and water expands. The seas creep higher up every coastline on Earth, the Arctic's summer ice disappears, Greenland bleeds billions of tonnes of land-ice into the sea, and the ocean turns acidic as it swallows our carbon.
Global mean sea level
The oceans have risen ~25 cm since 1880 — and the rate is accelerating.
227mm
latest · 2019
Dashed: projected to 225 mm by 2024 if the recent trend holds (not a forecast).
1880
-30 mm
change since
+850%
Ocean heat content (0–700 m)
The ocean has absorbed over 90% of global warming — and it is still heating.
22.8×10²² J
latest · 2025
Dashed: projected to 26.4 ×10²² J by 2030 if the recent trend holds (not a forecast).
1955
-3.2 ×10²² J
change since
+814%
Sea surface temperature
The ocean’s surface is running hotter than at any point in the instrumental record.
1.09°C
latest · 2026
Dashed: projected to 1.22 °C by 2031 if the recent trend holds (not a forecast).
1850
-0.03 °C
change since
+3235%
Arctic sea ice (September)
The Arctic has lost roughly 40% of its summer ice cover since 1979.
4.75M km²
latest · 2025
Dashed: projected to 4.34 M km² by 2030 if the recent trend holds (not a forecast).
1979
7.05 M km²
change since
-33%
Antarctic sea ice (minimum)
Antarctic summer sea ice fell off a cliff in 2023 — to the lowest on record.
2.91M km²
latest · 2026
Dashed: projected to 1.91 M km² by 2031 if the recent trend holds (not a forecast).
1979
3.14 M km²
change since
-7%
Greenland ice sheet mass
Greenland has shed nearly 5,000 billion tonnes of ice into the sea since 2002.
-4899Gt
latest · 2020
Dashed: projected to -6174 Gt by 2025 if the recent trend holds (not a forecast).
2002
-194 Gt
change since
-2425%
Antarctica ice sheet mass
Antarctica is losing ice too — about 2,700 billion tonnes gone since 2002.
-2746Gt
latest · 2020
Dashed: projected to -3461 Gt by 2025 if the recent trend holds (not a forecast).
2002
-49 Gt
change since
-5504%
Ocean acidification (surface pH)
As the sea absorbs our CO₂ it turns acidic — dissolving the shells of life itself.
8.04pH
latest · 2024
Dashed: projected to 8.03 pH by 2029 if the recent trend holds (not a forecast).
1989
8.11 pH
change since
-1%
Life
The web of life is unravelling
It is not only ice and air. The wild abundance of the living world — the fish, birds, mammals and amphibians we share the planet with — is collapsing. The Living Planet Index tracks the average change across thousands of monitored populations — though one bright spot is pushing back.
Living Planet Index
Monitored wildlife populations have collapsed by ~73% in a single human lifetime.
27index (1970=100)
latest · 2020
Dashed: projected to 24 index (1970=100) by 2025 if the recent trend holds (not a forecast).
1970
100 index (1970=100)
change since
-73%
Red List Index (extinction risk)
The world’s species are sliding toward extinction — the survival index falls every year.
0.72index
latest · 2024
Dashed: projected to 0.70 index by 2029 if the recent trend holds (not a forecast).
1993
0.82 index
change since
-12%
Protected land
One bright spot: about a sixth of the world’s land is now under some form of protection.
16.4%
latest · 2024
Dashed: projected to 16.7 % by 2029 if the recent trend holds (not a forecast).
2013
15.0 %
change since
+10%
Waste & Plastic
A throwaway world
We now make more than 460 million tonnes of plastic a year — and only a sliver of it is ever recycled. But plastic is one thread of a bigger story: the raw materials, fertiliser and freshwater we draw from the planet to feed a throwaway economy.
Global plastic production
From 2 to 460 million tonnes a year — most of it used once, then discarded.
460Mt
latest · 2019
Dashed: projected to 533 Mt by 2024 if the recent trend holds (not a forecast).
1950
2 Mt
change since
+22887%
Material footprint per person
Each person now draws down about 12 tonnes of raw materials a year.
12.3t per person
latest · 2022
Dashed: projected to 12.1 t per person by 2027 if the recent trend holds (not a forecast).
2000
9.3 t per person
change since
+31%
Fertilizer use
Synthetic fertiliser use has multiplied sixfold since 1961, overloading rivers and seas with nutrients.
183Mt
latest · 2023
Dashed: projected to 193 Mt by 2028 if the recent trend holds (not a forecast).
1961
28 Mt
change since
+556%
Freshwater use
Humanity now withdraws about six times more freshwater than a century ago.
3986km³
latest · 2014
Dashed: projected to 4126 km³ by 2019 if the recent trend holds (not a forecast).
1901
671 km³
change since
+494%
Where the world’s plastic waste ends up
2019 end-of-life shares.
- Landfilled50%
- Mismanaged22%
- Incinerated19%
- Recycled9%
reaching the ocean
1.7 Mt / year
The richer we get, the more we throw away
The world generates 2,010 million tonnes of municipal waste a year — projected to hit 3,400 Mt by 2050. A person in a high-income country bins 1.57 kg every day.
Low income0.43 kg/day
Lower-middle0.61 kg/day
Upper-middle0.69 kg/day
High income1.57 kg/day
Air
The air billions of us breathe
The WHO says annual PM2.5 above 5 µg/m³ is unsafe. In the worst-hit countries, people breathe air more than fifteen times dirtier than that — day in, day out. But the air holds one of our clearest victories too: the ozone layer is healing.
Annual average PM2.5 by country (2023). Bars in red exceed 35 µg/m³ — seven times the WHO limit.
Average PM2.5 exposure
The average person breathes air about six times dirtier than the WHO safe limit — though it has begun to fall.
31.3µg/m³
latest · 2020
Dashed: projected to 35.5 µg/m³ by 2025 if the recent trend holds (not a forecast).
1990
39.7 µg/m³
change since
-21%
Ozone-depleting substances
The Montreal Protocol worked: the chemicals destroying the ozone layer are down ~99% since 1986.
1.3% of 1986
latest · 2021
Dashed: projected to -0.2 % of 1986 by 2026 if the recent trend holds (not a forecast).
1986
100.0 % of 1986
change since
-99%
What you can do
Small changes, real curves bent
Despair changes nothing; choices do. None of us can fix this alone — but each of these habits measurably nudges the very trends you just saw. Start with one.
Proof the curves can bend the right way.
Two trends are already moving fast in the right direction — clean electricity and electric cars. Each went from a sliver to a serious share in barely a decade. Every choice below adds to a wave already in motion.
Renewable electricity share
A third of the world’s electricity is now renewable — the one curve finally bending up.
34%
latest · 2025
Dashed: projected to 38 % by 2030 if the recent trend holds (not a forecast).
1985
21 %
change since
+62%
Electric car sales share
A quarter of new cars sold are now electric — up from almost none a decade ago.
25%
latest · 2025
Dashed: projected to 33 % by 2030 if the recent trend holds (not a forecast).
2010
0 %
change since
+208233%
Committed
Fly less, and offset what you must
One round-trip transatlantic flight emits ~1.6 t CO₂ per passenger — about a year of a low-carbon lifestyle. Swapping one flight for rail or a call is one of the biggest single cuts you can make.
Easy
Refuse single-use plastic
Only ~9% of all plastic ever made has been recycled. A reusable bottle, cup and bag removes hundreds of single-use items from the waste stream every year.
Easy
Switch to a green electricity tariff
Electricity and heat are the largest emitting sector. Moving your home to certified renewables can cut household power emissions to near zero overnight.
Easy
Waste less food
Roughly a third of all food is wasted; if it were a country it would be the 3rd-largest emitter. Planning meals and using leftovers cuts both your bin and your footprint.
Committed
Drive electric — or don’t drive
Transport is ~16% of emissions. Walking, cycling or an EV for short trips cuts both CO₂ and the PM2.5 that pollutes the air we breathe.
Not sure where you stand?
Estimate your own footprint from four quick choices — then ask the Earth guide, which reads the same real data, how to bend your curve most.