What are planetary vital signs?

Planetary vital signs are key measurable indicators of Earth’s health, analogous to a patient’s pulse, temperature, and blood pressure. The Planetary Observatory tracks 44 vital signs across climate, atmosphere, ocean, cryosphere, biosphere, human enterprise, climate action, solutions, and human progress categories, drawing on frameworks by Ripple et al. (2025), IGCC 2024, and Milo Lab biomass studies.

How many climate indicators are at record levels?

As of the latest data, a majority of tracked planetary vital signs are at or near record levels. These include global surface temperature, ocean heat content, CO₂ concentration, sea-level rise, glacier mass loss, anthropogenic mass accumulation, and several human enterprise indicators such as population, energy consumption, and fossil fuel subsidies.

What is the current global temperature anomaly?

The global mean surface temperature anomaly reached approximately +1.53°C above the 1850–1900 pre-industrial baseline in 2024, making it the warmest year on record. The 2025 anomaly is approximately +1.41°C based on HadCRUT5 data. The rate of warming has accelerated to roughly 0.31°C per decade.

Planetary Vital Signs

The Planetary Observatory^v0.3

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Temperature

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CO₂

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1.5°C Budget

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Life Index

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At Record

Earth is our shared vessel, navigating the vast seas of time. The numbers gathered here are the view from the sentinel’s perch — dispatches from the crow’s nest that reveal the waters ahead, the storms already upon us, and the currents we might still catch. May they sharpen our collective foresight and help us steer clear of the reefs.

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About

The Planetary Observatory gathers the vital signs of a world in transformation. Climate, ocean, ice, life, and human enterprise — each metric a thread in the fabric of a planet that sustains us all.

The numbers here are not abstractions. They are the pulse of ice sheets and forests, the weight of what we build and what we lose. They tell us where we stand — and where we might still go.

Scientific framework: Ripple et al. 2025 (BioScience), IGCC 2024 (Forster et al.), Bar-On et al. 2018 (PNAS), Elhacham et al. 2020 (Nature), Greenspoon et al. 2025 (Nat Comms), Rosenberg et al. 2025 (Nat Ecol Evol). Additional data: NSIDC, PIOMAS, WWF/ZSL, IUCN, World Bank, UNFCCC, Energy Institute, FAOSTAT. Full citations and DOI links in each indicator’s detail panel. Visualization by GLOBAÏA.

GLOBAÏA — The Planetary Observatory

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About the Planetary Observatory

The Planetary Observatory tracks 44 vital signs of Earth — climate, atmosphere, ocean, cryosphere, biosphere, human enterprise, climate action, solutions, and human progress — presented as interactive charts with historical context and plain-language explanations.

Indicators include global surface temperature anomaly, CO₂ concentration, remaining carbon budgets, ocean heat content and pH, Arctic and Antarctic sea ice, glacier mass balance, sea level rise, living planet index, forest loss, protected areas, threatened species, biomass distribution, human-made mass, mammal biomass, ocean biomass, biomass movement, anthropogenic material accumulation, population, energy consumption, meat production, fossil fuel subsidies, ruminant livestock, GDP, greenhouse gas emissions, climate finance, divestment, climate emergency declarations, mitigation options, solar PV cost, renewable electricity, electric vehicle adoption, ozone-depleting substances, environmental agreements, child mortality, vaccination coverage, literacy rate, and access to clean cooking.

Sources: Ripple et al. 2025 (BioScience), IGCC 2024 (Forster et al.), Bar-On et al. 2018 (PNAS), Elhacham et al. 2020 (Nature), Greenspoon et al. 2025 (Nat Comms), Rosenberg et al. 2025 (Nat Ecol Evol), NSIDC, PIOMAS, WWF/ZSL, IUCN, World Bank, UNFCCC, Energy Institute, FAOSTAT. A majority of tracked indicators are at or near record levels.