A reflection on humanity’s urgent responsibility to protect life as we know it.

“Save the planet!”—it’s a rallying cry we’ve all heard. But does the planet really need saving?

The Earth itself is a colossal, resilient ball of rock and metal, formed 4.5 billion years ago. Its 1,086 trillion cubic kilometers of mass includes an iron-nickel core, molten mantle, and a thin crust. And life? It clings to an astonishingly tiny fraction of that—our biosphere, which makes up just 0.0007% of the planet’s volume.

Even if humanity unleashed its worst, devastating ecosystems and causing irreversible damage, Earth would endure. It has survived asteroid impacts, super-volcanoes, and eons of cosmic turbulence. Regardless of our actions, it will continue orbiting around the Sun for another 7 billion to 8 billion years.

Life Is Resilient, But We’re at Risk

Life on Earth began about 4 billion years ago, but for most of that time, it consisted of single-celled organisms. Complex multicellular life—plants, animals, and ecosystems like the ones we rely on—only appeared around 600 million years ago. That’s just 15% of life’s history.

Since then, Earth has endured five mass extinctions, each wiping out 75% to 96% of species. After every catastrophe, life found a way to recover, but not without immense loss. Microbial life, in particular, appears to be ubiquitous and almost indestructible:

• Some bacteria can survive for years in the vacuum of outer space. Others live in polar deserts, survive high temperature and pressure, and even resist radiation.
• The human body hosts more bacteria cells (38 trillion) than human ones (30 trillion).

Even if humanity were to vanish, microbial life would likely persist. But our survival—and the survival of countless species we depend on—isn’t guaranteed.

Who Really Needs Saving?

What’s at stake isn’t the planet itself—it’s our own lives. The ecosystems we depend on for food, water, and air are fragile, and their collapse puts humanity’s future in jeopardy. The Earth will endure without us, but we cannot endure without the delicate balance of life that sustains us.

Let’s stop pretending we’re here to “save the planet.” The truth is, we need to save ourselves—and to do that, we must protect the ecosystems that sustain us.

As John Doerr outlines in Speed & Scale (and reinforces in his TED Talk) a clear plan to tackle the climate crisis and build a sustainable future:

1. Electrify Transportation – Transition to clean, electric vehicles and renewable energy.
2. Decarbonize the Grid – Shift away from fossil fuels to wind, solar, and other green energy sources.
3. Fix Food – Reduce food waste and transform agricultural practices to be sustainable.
4. Protect Nature – Safeguard forests, oceans, and biodiversity.
5. Clean Up Industry – Innovate cleaner production processes for essential goods.
6. Remove Carbon – Invest in technologies to capture and store CO₂.

The Way Forward

The challenges are immense, but so is the opportunity. By taking action, we’re not just preserving our species—we’re ensuring a livable future for generations to come.

The Earth doesn’t need us to survive. But we need the Earth, its ecosystems, and the delicate balance of life to thrive. Let’s move beyond slogans and focus on what truly matters: creating a sustainable world for all.

Here’s John Doerr on the TED stage: