How to repair the planet? An answer hides in plain sight

What if we're looking at environmental problems the wrong way? What if we tackled them as a whole, instead of individually?

- CATRIN EINHORN

SOMETIMES, HUMAN NEEDS can make problems like climate change and biodiversity collapse seem insurmountable. The world still relies on fossil fuels that are dangerously heating the planet. People need to eat, but agriculture is a top driver of biodiversity loss.

But what if we're looking at those problems the wrong way? What if we tackled them as a whole, instead of individually? A landmark assessment, commissioned by 147 countries and made public on Tuesday, offers the most comprehensive answer to date, examining the sometimes dizzying interconnections among biodiversity, climate change, food, water and health. "Our current approaches to dealing with these crises have tended to be fragmented or siloed," said Paula Harrison, a co-chair of the assessment and an environmental scientist who focuses on land and water modeling at the UK Center for Ecology & Hydrology, a research organisation.

"That's led to inefficiencies and has often been counterproductive."