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Six actions for ecologists in times of planetary crisis

Nature Ecology & Evolution volume 9, pages 1300–1301 (2025)Cite this article

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Climate breakdown and unprecedented biodiversity loss put humanity at grave risk, and threaten human lives, livelihoods and well-being globally. Ecologists have been instrumental in revealing and detailing some of the mechanisms that drive biodiversity decline, and regularly call for immediate action1. In response to this, a sense of emergency has entered public discourse, and is heightened with each new report and global summit; some ecological societies have been calling on their members to write to their political representatives, and many ecologists have been vocal about both scientific and societal issues on social media. Yet, despite these pockets of activity, it has been argued that the way that the discipline of ecology operates could reflect more clearly the urgency of the situation2,3.

Several factors might contribute to the current mismatch. First, as with any other scientists, ecologists have been encouraged to place themselves in a neutral, reporting, objective role4. Those who deviate from this tack have encountered increasing threats to their academic freedom and activities, especially with the rise of political populism and nationalism around the world5. Second, the emergence of conservation biology in the 1980s provided a clear home for mission-driven ecologists who aspire to go beyond applied science6. Third, the scientific community is embedded in societies and economic systems that are primarily hardwired to economic growth, in which (1) facts alone do little to address systemic issues that underlie biodiversity loss and climate change, and (2) high-level decisions about research funding are increasingly shaped by their perceived contribution to economic growth2,7.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Zoology, Zoological Society of London (ZSL), London, UK

    Nathalie Pettorelli

  2. Environment & Sustainability Institute, University of Exeter, Penryn, UK

    Kevin J. Gaston

  3. Lancaster Environnement Centre, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK

    Jos Barlow

  4. Department of Biogeography and Global Change, Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Madrid, Spain

    Miguel B. Araújo

  5. Rui Nabeiro’ Biodiversity Chair, Mediterranean Institute for Agriculture, Environment and Development (MED), Global Change and Sustainability Institute (CHANGE), University of Évora, Évora, Portugal

    Miguel B. Araújo

  6. Department of Ecology, Institute of Biology, University of Brasília, Brasília, Brazil

    Mercedes Maria da Cunha Bustamante

  7. Securing Antarctica’s Environmental Future, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

    Steven L. Chown

  8. Department of Biology, University of Mississippi, Oxford, MS, USA

    Luisa Maria Diele-Viegas

  9. (Bio)Diversity in the Anthropocene Lab, Federal University of Bahia, Salvador, Brazil

    Luisa Maria Diele-Viegas

  10. Centre for Tropical Environmental and Sustainability Science, College of Science and Engineering, James Cook University, Cairns, Queensland, Australia

    William F. Laurance

  11. Department of Natural Sciences, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK

    Alexander C. Lees

  12. School of Animal, Rural and Environmental Science, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, UK

    Felipe P. L. Melo

  13. Instituto de Biociências, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Recife, Brazil

    Felipe P. L. Melo

  14. Department of Biology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    E. J. Milner-Gulland

  15. Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia

    Gretta Pecl

  16. Centre for Marine Socioecology, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia

    Gretta Pecl

  17. Ciimar, Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal

    Isabel Sousa-Pinto

Authors
  1. Nathalie Pettorelli
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  2. Kevin J. Gaston
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  3. Jos Barlow
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  4. Miguel B. Araújo
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  5. Mercedes Maria da Cunha Bustamante
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  6. Steven L. Chown
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  7. Luisa Maria Diele-Viegas
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  8. William F. Laurance
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  9. Alexander C. Lees
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  10. Felipe P. L. Melo
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  11. E. J. Milner-Gulland
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  12. Gretta Pecl
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  13. Isabel Sousa-Pinto
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Nathalie Pettorelli.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Pettorelli, N., Gaston, K.J., Barlow, J. et al. Six actions for ecologists in times of planetary crisis. Nat Ecol Evol 9, 1300–1301 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-025-02759-8

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