Don’t Be Distracted - Earth’s Life Support Systems Are Collapsing

While everyone's glued to the spectacle of Donald Trump’s latest rant, or Jacinta Price and Andrew Hastie jockeying for power inside the LNP, something far more consequential is happening: our planet is going down the gurgler faster than ever. Distraction is exactly what the far right and fossil fuel industry want. If we’re busy arguing about culture wars and personality politics, we’re not paying attention to collapse of the systems that make human and all life on Earth possible.

The 2025 Planetary Health Check, released this week by the highly respected Potsdam Institute, shows seven of Earth’s nine life-support systems are now beyond safe limits. Even worse, pressures on every single one of them are accelerating. In plain English: the stresses are getting worse, not better.

For the first time, scientists have also confirmed that ocean acidification has breached the boundary of safety. The chemistry of our oceans has shifted so far that corals, shellfish, and plankton, the very foundations of marine food webs, are struggling to survive. That’s not just a problem for the Great Barrier Reef or whales. It’s a problem for every human being. We rely on the ocean for not only for food, but for climate regulation and oxygen.

The other breached boundaries are equally alarming: climate change, biodiversity collapse, deforestation and land degradation, overuse of freshwater, nutrient pollution from nitrogen and phosphorus, and the spread of toxic chemicals and plastics. Only the ozone layer and atmospheric aerosols remain within the safe zone, and even these are fragile.

The message from scientists is clear: we are deep into the danger zone. We’re unravelling Earth’s climate and ecosystems, pushing them to irreversible tipping points. Like ice sheet collapse, rainforest dieback, and ocean circulation breakdown. Once these thresholds are crossed, no amount of climate action, let alone political spin, will bring us back.

And yet our leaders, cheered on by fossil fuel lobbyists, are happy for us to look the other way. They thrive on distraction. They hope that if we’re focusing on Trump’s tantrums or the LNP’s leadership games, we won’t notice the new coal mines and gas projects quietly being approved. They want us confused, distracted, divided, and exhausted.

The good news from the Potsdam Institute is that the window for action and recovery is still open. But it’s closing fast. Just as the world came together to heal the ozone layer in the 1980s, we can still pull the planet back from collapse.

So don’t be distracted. We can’t afford to take the bait. Don’t let them win. Keep your eyes on what really matters: a liveable planet for us, our kids, and generations to come. The science is alarming, but it’s also a guide. It shows us exactly where the pressure points are and where action can still make a difference. Change on the scale we need has happened before, and it can happen again, if enough of us refuse to look away. That means turning anxiety into energy, despair into determination, and outrage into action. It means practicing active hope.

What can I do?

1. Download the full report here.

2. Find your local MP or Senator here and send them a link to it explaining why you want them to stay focused on what’s important for our kids and Country.

Heatwave predictions from the BOM.