Interconnections — Planetary Health Check 2026

Effect on the boundary being driven

Relevance the assessment gives the connection — not the size of the effect, and not how certain it is

Reading the ring

Colour belongs to the driver: An arc takes the colour of the boundary it leaves, and points at the one it changes.
Weight is relevance, not force: A heavy line is one the assessment thinks matters most for the boundary at its far end. It says nothing about how large the effect is or how certain the evidence.
A broken line pushes back: Most processes drive the affected boundary further into transgression. A dashed one does the opposite; a dotted one can do either.
Opposing processes stay apart: Two boundaries can be joined by several arcs, pulling in different directions.

Biosphere integrity receives 19 of the sixty-four — more than twice as many as any other boundary, and it sends out 8. Whatever else the ring shows, it shows that the living world is where the other eight boundaries arrive.

Planetary Health Check

No boundary moves alone