Earth

This note is about the Earth as a whole.

Cf.

Earth systems
planetary science
Ocean

Zheng, Yongfei, Zhengtang Guo, Nianzhi Jiao, Mu Mu, Shilong Piao, Suiyan Fu, Dinghui Yang, and Maoyan Zhu. “A Holistic Perspective on Earth System Science.” Science China Earth Sciences 67, no. 10 (2024): 3013–40. https://doi.org/10/g8p8ds.

The Evolution/History of the Earth System

Textbooks

Condie, Kent C. Earth as an Evolving Planetary System. 4th ed. 2005. Reprint, London: Academic Press, 2022.

Martin, Ronald E. Earth’s Evolving Systems: The History of Planet Earth. 2012. 2nd ed. Burlington: Jones & Bartlett Learning, 2018.

Stanley, Steven M., and John A. Luczaj. Earth System History. 1999. 4th ed. New York: Freeman/Macmillan Higher Education, 2015.

Wicander, Reed, and James S. Monroe. Historical Geology: Evolution of Earth and Life through Time. 1993; Belmont: Cengage Learning, 2015.

Ecology

Tucker, Mary Evelyn. The Variety of Integral Ecologies: Nature, Culture, and Knowledge in the Planetary Era. Edited by Sam Mickey, Adam Robbert, and Sean Kelly. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2017.

Gaian Systems

Cf.

Gaian systems

Janković, Srdja, Ana Katić, and Milan M. Ćirković. ‘Gaia as Solaris: An Alternative Default Evolutionary Trajectory’. Origins of Life and Evolution of Biospheres 52, no. 1 (2022): 129–47. https://doi.org/10/gr542n.

Systems

Kleidon, Alex. Thermodynamic Foundations of the Earth System. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016.

Lingam, Manasvi, Adam Frank, and Amedeo Balbi. ‘Planetary Scale Information Transmission in the Biosphere and Technosphere: Limits and Evolution’. Life 13, no. 9 (2023): 1850. https://doi.org/10/gstc3n.

Szerszynski, Bronislaw. ‘Infrastructuring as a Planetary Phenomenon: Timescale Separation and Causal Closure in More-Than-Human Systems’. Historical Social Research / Historische Sozialforschung 47, no. 4 (2022): 193–214.

Szerszynski, Bronislaw. ‘How to Dismantle a Bus: Planetary Mobilities as Method’. In Handbook of Research Methods and Applications for Mobilities, 398–409. Cheltenham: Elgar, 2020.

Boundaries

Nash, Kirsty L., Christopher Cvitanovic, Elizabeth A. Fulton, Benjamin S. Halpern, E. J. Milner-Gulland, Reg A. Watson, and Julia L. Blanchard. ‘Planetary Boundaries for a Blue Planet’. Nature Ecology & Evolution 1, no. 11 (2017): 1625–34. https://doi.org/10/gh6fr3.

O’Neill, Daniel W., Andrew L. Fanning, William F. Lamb, and Julia K. Steinberger. ‘A Good Life for All Within Planetary Boundaries’. Nature Sustainability 1, no. 2 (2018): 88–95. https://doi.org/10/cj8t.

Rockström, Johan, Will Steffen, Kevin Noone, Åsa Persson, F. Stuart Chapin, Eric Lambin, Timothy M. Lenton, et al. ‘Planetary Boundaries: Exploring the Safe Operating Space for Humanity’. Ecology and Society 14, no. 2 (2009). https://doi.org/10/gd53h4.

Steffen, Will, Åsa Persson, Lisa Deutsch, Jan Zalasiewicz, Mark Williams, Katherine Richardson, Carole Crumley, et al. ‘The Anthropocene: From Global Change to Planetary Stewardship’. Ambio 40, no. 7 (2011): 739. https://doi.org/10/bzwbff.

Steffen, Will, Katherine Richardson, Johan Rockström, Sarah E. Cornell, Ingo Fetzer, Elena M. Bennett, Reinette Biggs, et al. ‘Planetary Boundaries: Guiding Human Development on a Changing Planet’. Science 347, no. 6223 (13 February 2015): 1259855. https://doi.org/10/f3m6n9.

Global Technologies

Hybrid Earth

Frank, Adam, Axel Kleidon, and Marina Alberti. ‘Earth as a Hybrid Planet: The Anthropocene in an Evolutionary Astrobiological Context’. Anthropocene 19 (2017): 13–21. https://doi.org/10/gfz74v.

See: International Journal of Digital Earth

Guo, Huadong, Stefano Nativi, Dong Liang, Max Craglia, Lizhe Wang, Sven Schade, Christina Corban, et al. ‘Big Earth Data Science: An Information Framework for a Sustainable Planet’. International Journal of Digital Earth 13, no. 7 (2020): 743–67. https://doi.org/10/gr3zpt.

Böhlen, Marc. On the Logics of Planetary Computing: Artificial Intelligence and Geography in the Alas Mertajati. Abingdon: Routledge, 2025.

Bratton, Benjamin H. The Stack: On Software and Sovereignty. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2015.

Gorelick, Noel, Matt Hancher, Mike Dixon, Simon Ilyushchenko, David Thau, and Rebecca Moore. ‘Google Earth Engine: Planetary-Scale Geospatial Analysis for Everyone’. Remote Sensing of Environment 202 (2017): 18–27. https://doi.org/10/gddm6z.

Guo, Huadong, Michael F. Goodchild, and Alessandro Annoni. Manual of Digital Earth. Cham: Springer, 2020.

Haff, Peter K. “Technology as a Geological Phenomenon: Implications for Human Well-Being.” Geological Society, London, Special Publications 395, no. 1 (2014): 301–9. https://doi.org/10/ggsdcf.

Clark, Nigel, and Bronislaw Szerszynski. Planetary Social Thought: The Anthropocene Challenge to the Social Sciences. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2021.

Herrmann-Pillath, Carsten, Juha Hiedanpää, and Katriina Soini. ‘The Co-Evolutionary Approach to Nature-Based Solutions: A Conceptual Framework’. Nature-Based Solutions 2 (2022): 100011. https://doi.org/10/gpdgn8.

Intelligence

Frank, Adam, David Grinspoon, and Sara Walker. ‘Intelligence as a Planetary Scale Process’. International Journal of Astrobiology 21, no. 2 (2022): 47–61. https://doi.org/10/gphj4k.

Health

Vidal, Clément. ‘Extending Planetary Health: Global Ethics and Global Governance in the Noosphere’. Humanistic Management Journal, 2023. https://doi.org/10/gr6vwg.

Gonzalez-Holguera, Julia, Marie Gaille, Maria del Rio Carral, Julia Steinberger, Joachim Marti, Nolwenn Bühler, Alain Kaufmann, et al. ‘Translating Planetary Health Principles Into Sustainable Primary Care Services’. Frontiers in Public Health 10 (2022).

Prescott, Susan L., and Alan C. Logan. ‘Down to Earth: Planetary Health and Biophilosophy in the Symbiocene Epoch’. Challenges 8, no. 2 (2017): 19. https://doi.org/10/ghk27z.

Elo, Merja, Jonne Hytönen, Sanna Karkulehto, Teea Kortetmäki, Janne S. Kotiaho, Mikael Puurtinen, and Miikka Salo, eds. Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Planetary Well-Being. London: Routledge, 2023.

From Health

Go to text →

Planetary Health

The system is as healthy as its least healthy part.

^{What Is Planetary Health?}

See: The Lancet Planetary Health

Alahuhta, Janne, Helena Tukiainen, Maija Toivanen, Terhi Ala-Hulkko, Vahid Farrahi, Jan Hjort, Tiina M. Ikäheimo, et al. ‘Acknowledging Geodiversity in Safeguarding Biodiversity and Human Health’. The Lancet Planetary Health 6, no. 12 (2022): e987–92. https://doi.org/10/grxj3p.

Arora, Manish, Paul Curtin, Austen Curtin, Christine Austin, and Alessandro Giuliani. Environmental Biodynamics: A New Science of How the Environment Interacts with Human Health. New York: Oxford University Press, 2021.

Johnson, Kira L., Maya K. Gislason, Diego S. Silva, Maxwell J. Smith, and Chris Buse. “Advancing Planetary Health through Interspecies Justice: A Rapid Review.” Challenges 15, no. 4 (2024): 45. https://doi.org/10/g9rvc9.

Myers, Samuel, and Howard Frumkin. Planetary Health: Protecting Nature to Protect Ourselves. Washington: Island Press, 2020.

Nassauer, Joan Iverson. ‘Care and Stewardship: From Home to Planet’. Landscape and Urban Planning, Landscape and Urban Planning at 100, 100, no. 4 (2011): 321–23. https://doi.org/10/bp4v4h.

Prescott, Susan L., and Alan C. Logan. ‘Down to Earth: Planetary Health and Biophilosophy in the Symbiocene Epoch’. Challenges 8, no. 2 (2017): 19. https://doi.org/10/ghk27z.

Landscape Architecture

Clément, Gilles. The Planetary Garden: And Other Writings. Translated by Sandra Morris. Penn Studies in Landscape Architecture. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015.

Urban

Brenner, Neil. Implosions /Explosions: Towards a Study of Planetary Urbanization. Berlin: Jovis Berlin, 2014.

Seitzinger, Sybil P, Uno Svedin, Carole L. Crumley, Will Steffen, Saiful Arif Abdullah, Christine Alfsen, Wendy J. Broadgate, et al. ‘Planetary Stewardship in an Urbanizing World: Beyond City Limits’. Ambio 41, no. 8 (2012): 787–94. https://doi.org/10/f224s2.

Ruddick, Sue. ‘Situating the Anthropocene: Planetary Urbanization and the Anthropological Machine’. Urban Geography 36, no. 8 (2015): 1113–30. https://doi.org/10/gfsjjm.

Ruddick, Sue, Linda Peake, Gökbörü S Tanyildiz, and Darren Patrick. ‘Planetary Urbanization: An Urban Theory for Our Time?’ Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 36, no. 3 (2018): 387–404. https://doi.org/10/gfc4ch.

Planetary Humanities

Chakrabarty, Dipesh. “Planetary Humanities: Straddling the Decolonial/Postcolonial Divide.” Daedalus 151, no. 3 (2022): 222–33. https://doi.org/10/gtrfbs.

Chakrabarty, Dipesh. “The Planet: An Emergent Humanist Category.” Critical Inquiry 46, no. 1 (2019): 1–31. https://doi.org/10/gg2rj7.

Clark, Nigel, and Bronislaw Szerszynski. “What Can a Planet Do?” Cultural Geographies 32, no. 3 (2025): 331–41. https://doi.org/10/g97rng.

Likavčan, Lukáš. “Another Earth: An Astronomical Concept of the Planet for the Environmental Humanities.” Distinktion: Journal of Social Theory 25, no. 1 (2024): 17–36. https://doi.org/10/g97rm8.

Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. “Imperative to Re-Imagine the Planet.” In An Aesthetic Education in the Era of Globalization, by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, 335–50. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2012.

Woodard, Ben. On an Ungrounded Earth: Towards a New Geophilosophy. Punctum, 2013.

Interplanetary

Kaufman, Jason A., Andrew Lenartz, and T. Elliott Floyd. ‘An Interplanetary Land Ethic’. Sustainability and Climate Change 15, no. 1 (2022): 50–57. https://doi.org/10/gr6tsz.

Lineweaver, Charles H., and Aditya Chopra. ‘The Habitability of Our Earth and Other Earths: Astrophysical, Geochemical, Geophysical, and Biological Limits on Planet Habitability’. Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences 40, no. 1 (2012): 597–623. https://doi.org/10/grm6r8.

Governance and Justice

From Justice

Go to text →

Planetary Justice

Cf.

Earth

Cf. Justice

Themes

Theme	Description
Multiscalar governance	Emphasis on governance across planetary, national, and local levels (subsidiarity, polycentric models).
Expanded scope of justice	Inclusion of non-human animals, ecosystems, and abiotic entities as subjects of justice.
Ethical pluralism	Integration of diverse philosophical traditions and Indigenous worldviews.
Institutional reform	Critique of existing global institutions and proposals for new planetary bodies.
Temporal consciousness	Consideration of deep time, intergenerational justice, and historical responsibility.
Self and relational ethics	Focus on personal transformation, moral accountability, and relational justice.

Key issues and disagreements

Subject of justice: states vs persons vs communities; include future generations, nonhuman life.
Metric of justice: equality vs sufficiency vs capabilities vs rights; weigh social floors vs ecological ceilings; allocate carbon budgets, land, water, biodiversity space .
Scale and governance: global compacts vs polycentric governance; mismatch between causes, harms, authority.
Responsibility and liability: historical responsibility, capacity, beneficiary‑pays vs polluter‑pays; loss‑and‑damage, transition‑mineral footprints; links to Common but Differentiated Responsibilities.
Procedure and knowledge: representation for vulnerable groups, future people, species; roles for Indigenous knowledge, guardianship, rights of nature; data justice for monitoring.
Transition pathways: speed vs fairness during rapid decarbonisation; green growth vs degrowth; choices near tipping points.
Implementation: indicators, benchmarks, courts, treaties, corporate duties; avoid justice‑washing while building workable tools.

Approaches in practice

Safe‑and‑just targets that extend planetary boundaries with equity constraints, plus sectoral budgets.
Equity‑based allocation rules: capacity, responsibility, need, right‑to‑development, convergence.
Just‑transition compacts: social protection, reskilling, regional diversification.
Polycentric experiments: city networks, Indigenous‑led stewardship, transboundary basin councils.
Legal innovation: rights of nature, guardians for future generations, biodiversity benefit‑sharing.
Data and accountability: open monitoring, equity dashboards, grievance mechanisms.
Knowledge pluralism: co‑production with affected communities, respect for Indigenous data sovereignty.

Sample Literature

Biermann, Frank, and Agni Kalfagianni. “Planetary Justice: A Research Framework.” Earth System Governance, vol. 6 (2020): 100049. https://doi.org/10/gkm3qx.

Gupta, Joyeeta, Xuemei Bai, Diana M Liverman, Johan Rockström, Dahe Qin, Ben Stewart-Koster, Juan C Rocha, et al. “A Just World on a Safe Planet: A Lancet Planetary Health–Earth Commission Report on Earth-System Boundaries, Translations, and Transformations.” The Lancet Planetary Health 8, no. 10 (October 2024): e813–73. https://doi.org/10/g8zcmr.

Anthony Burke, ‘Interspecies Cosmopolitanism: Non-Human Power and the Grounds of World Order in the Anthropocene’, Review of International Studies 49, no. 2 (2023): 201–22, https://doi.org/10/gtztgf.

Biermann, Frank, and Agni Kalfagianni. ‘Planetary Justice: A Research Framework’. Earth System Governance 6 (2020): 100049. https://doi.org/10/gkm3qx.

Bendik-Keymer, Jeremy. “The Self-Work of Planetary Justice.” Environmental Politics 33 (2023): 1166–84. https://doi.org/10/gtgq4q.

Blake, Jonathan S., and Nils Gilman. Children of a Modest Star: Planetary Thinking for an Age of Crises. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2024.

Celermajer, Danielle, Anthony Burke, Stefanie Fishel, Erin Fitz-Henry, Nicole Rogers, David Schlosberg, and Christine Winter. Institutionalising Multispecies Justice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2025.

Gabrys, Jennifer. ‘Smart Forests and Data Practices: From the Internet of Trees to Planetary Governance’. Big Data & Society 7, no. 1 (2020): 1–10. https://doi.org/10/ggmzf2.

Hickey, Colin, and Ingrid Robeyns. ‘Planetary Justice: What Can We Learn from Ethics and Political Philosophy?’ Earth System Governance, Exploring Planetary Justice, 6 (2020): 100045. https://doi.org/10/gjphcb.

Kalfagianni, Agni, Stefan Pedersen, and Dimitris and Stevis. “Planetary Justice: A Systematic Analysis of an Emerging Discourse.” Environmental Politics 33, no. 7 (2024): 1146–65. https://doi.org/10/g9rt97.

Pedersen, Stefan, Dimitris Stevis, and Agni and Kalfagianni. “What Is Planetary Justice?” Environmental Politics 33, no. 7 (2024): 1137–45. https://doi.org/10/g8vrnw.

Rockström, Johan, Louis Kotzé, Svetlana Milutinović, Frank Biermann, Victor Brovkin, Jonathan Donges, Jonas Ebbesson, et al. “The Planetary Commons: A New Paradigm for Safeguarding Earth-Regulating Systems in the Anthropocene.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 121, no. 5 (2024): e2301531121. https://doi.org/10/gtfk3h.

Ryder, Stacia, Erik Kojola, and David Pellow. “Power and Temporality in Pursuing Transformative Planetary Justice.” Environmental Politics 33, no. 7 (2024): 1245–64. https://doi.org/10/g933tc.

Shiva, Vandana. Earth Democracy: Justice, Sustainability and Peace. London: Zed Books, 2016.

Stevis, Dimitris, and Romain Felli. ‘Planetary Just Transition? How Inclusive and How Just?’ Earth System Governance, Exploring Planetary Justice, 6, no. 100065 (2020): 1–11. https://doi.org/10/ghsxc7.

Young, Oran R. Addressing the Grand Challenges of Planetary Governance: The Future of the Global Political Order. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023.

Working Group of the International Commission on the Future of Food and Agriculture. ‘Terra Viva: Our Soil, Our Commons, Our Future. a New Vision for Planetary Citizenship’. Tuscany: Navdanya International, 2015.

Earth System Law

Cf. Earth System Law

Rivers

Cf.

Water

Nienhuis, Jaap H., Wonsuck Kim, Glenn A. Milne, Melinda Quock, Aimée B.A. Slangen, and Torbjörn E. Törnqvist. ‘River Deltas and Sea-Level Rise’. Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences 51, no. 1 (2023): 79–104. https://doi.org/10/grdzxn.

Syvitski, Jaia, Edward Anthony, Yoshiki Saito, Florin Zăinescu, John Day, Janok P. Bhattacharya, and Liviu Giosan. ‘Large Deltas, Small Deltas: Toward a More Rigorous Understanding of Coastal Marine Deltas’. Global and Planetary Change 218 (2022): 103958. https://doi.org/10/grdzxm.

Yang, Shilun, John D. Milliman, Ping Li, and Kun Xu. ‘50,000 Dams Later: Erosion of the Yangtze River and Its Delta’. Global and Planetary Change 75, no. 1–2 (2011): 14–20. https://doi.org/10/d2drs2.

References

Routledge Planetary Spaces Series

Garcia-Gonzalez, Francisco, William J Ripple, and Aurelio F Malo. “Scientists’ Warning to Humanity for Long-Term Planetary Thinking on Biodiversity and Humankind Preservation, a Cosmic Perspective.” BioScience 74, no. 2 (2024): 82–85. https://doi.org/10/g5tdcs.

Backlinks