Can we safely steer ourselves and all the other living creatures on the planet to a place where the environment is both stable and able to support our modern global economy?
Science clearly shows that we are changing the world in ways that may jeopardize our own future. We can no longer exclude the possibility that, in our pursuit of wealth and wellbeing, we may inadvertently trigger catastrophic outcomes at the planetary level.
Through groundbreaking new science, The Human Quest: Prospering Within Planetary Boundaries by 
world-leading scientist Johan Rockström and National Geographic photographer Mattias Klum, explores what is at stake.
The eye-opening content comes to life through beautiful and dramatic pictures, merging science and photography in never before seen ways. It serves as an inspiration and guide for action.
The Human Quest combines evidence from the many scientific disciplines that reveal how planet Earth operates and the tenuous relations between the Earth system and humans. Rockström and Klum not only diagnose the problems, but also look at the opportunities and evidence supporting the transition to a sustainable future.
“We need to find ways to ‘turn’ these curves away from such global risks,” says Rockström, “and we need to do it now, in what may be the most decisive decade in human history. This book is about deepening the insights of our social-ecological predicament as a source of hope and innovation. We need nothing less than a great transformation of societies in the world, and I believe it is possible.”
The book illustrates the fragility and the beauty of our planet, while it lays out the challenges we now face as a human race, providing a framework for navigating these turbulent times. Unlike any other book of its kind, The Human Quest builds this framework from the unique perspective of nine planetary boundaries interactively combined, defined as: climate change, ocean acidification, stratospheric ozone, biogeochemical, global freshwater use, land system change, biodiversity loss, chemical pollution, and aerosol loading.
The forward by President Bill Clinton says: “. The authors demonstrate that with collective action, humankind can still bend the curves of negative environmental change toward a resilient and prosperous future—but there’s no time left to waste. In my lifetime, I’ve never worked on an issue that at once held so much peril and so much promise.”
More information: www.TheHumanQuest.org
Scientist Johan Rockström (right) and National Geographic photographer Mattias Klum (below)